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 AbdulRaheem AbdulBaki-led-delegation to be focused and resilient in order to achieve their mandate of institutionalising the public procurement process in their State.
Onafowote gave the admonition while welcoming the Kwara team on a two-day visit to understudy the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, commending the delegation for the interest and desire to learn from Lagos with a view to replicating same in Kwara.
He spoke on the history of the Agency since it commenced full operations 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.
The Director-General also pointed out that the Agency has been able to record great success so far because of the enormous support of successive administrations in the State, noting that the Kwara State Procurement Agency must cultivate the support of the State Government to achieve its set goals and objectives.
“I must also acknowledge the support from the DFID, as well as some experienced State Agencies, due to their involvement with World Bank projects of the Lagos Water Corporation and the Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project (LMDGP). They have assisted us in training the pioneer staff of the Agency. However, the Agency has developed other avenues and strategies of training and retraining its personnel for improved service delivery”, Onafowote stated.
Responding, the General Manager of the Kwara State Public Procurement Agency, Alhaji AbdulRaheem AbdulBaki, appreciated his Lagos State counterpart and the team for their willingness to share ideas that could also be replicated for a successful public procurement process in Kwara State.
Alhaji AbdulBaki expressed fascination about information provided online by the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency and the brief of the Lagos State 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.
