14th September, 2021
The Director- General, Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Mr. Fatai Idowu Onafowote, has enjoined the General-Manager of the Kwara State Public Procurement Agency (KWPPA), Alhaji Abdul Raheem Abdul Baki, and his team to be focused and resilient so that they could achieve their mandate of instutionalising public procurement process in the State.
Mr. Onafowote gave the admonition while addressing a delegation of the Kwara State Public Procurement Agency who paid a two-day visit to Lagos to understudy the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency.
The Director-General commended the visiting General-Manager and his team for their interest in the Agency ( Lagos State Public Procurement Agency) to share ideas with a view to ensuring that their Agency ( Kwara State Public Procurement Agency) swing into action on a sound footing.
He also took the visiting team on a memory lane as he delved into the history of the Agency which he said commenced full operation in 2014 when it formally took over the functions of the defunct State Tenders’ Board (STB) and State Consultancy Board (SCB) having earlier been established by Law in 2012.
Onafowote also pointed out that the support the Agency had been receiving from the successive administrations in the State and stakeholders assisted the Agency to achieve the successes so far recorded, noting that the General-Manager of the Kwara State Procurement Agency must also cultivate the support of the State (Kwara) Government.
He also acknowledged the support received by the Agency from the DFID as well as the support received from some experienced people working in World Bank projects such as the Lagos Water Corporation and the Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project (LMDGP) who assisted in training the pioneer staff of the Agency, adding that the Agency has developed other avenues and strategies of training and retraining of its personnel for improved delivery of service.
Responding, Abdul Baki, expressed appreciation to his Lagos State counterpart and his team for their willingness to share ideas with him and his team so that they could also replicate what Lagos State is doing in public procurement in Kwara State.
He also stated that he was impressed by what he had read online about the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency and the brief he got from his Lagos State counterpart and his team, stressing the need for Public Procurement Agencies of the 36 States of the Federation to meet regularly and exchange ideas to further entrench public procurement process in the country.
The meeting was attended by Heads of Department and Unit of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency.