The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has scheduled a 3-day procurement in-house training for all its procurement and other relevant officers in NASENI system -wide to acquaint them with best procurement operations and in line with global practices.
The training, which will hold from Tuesday to Thursday this week at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja, is designed to build the capacity of procurement officers, and other select staff from Accounts, Audit, Legal, Media, Planning departments and other officers involved in procurement activities in the agency.
A statement issued by the agency’s Deputy Director, Information, Chima Akwaja, on the capacity building initiative indicated that NASENI’s Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Khalil Halilu, would deliver the keynote address while Acting Director-General/CEO of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Olusegun Omotola, would formally declare open the training programme.
According to him, the training aims at ensuring that NASENI is doing the right thing and adhering to 2007 Procurement Act Manual and other vital information that will enable the agency to continue on the right track and to utilize the right information at every given time, as far as procurement matters are concerned, amongst other objectives.
Speaking on the training programme, the agency’s Director of Procurement, Dr. Mohammed A. Mohammed, said that the training was based on NASENI’s needs and to enable officers meet up with changes in technology and practices which are global phenomenon, especially against the backdrop of on-going transformation in the NASENI system.
He explained: “Things are changing, and you need to change with time, technology is changing globally, you need to build your capacity. This training is based on NASENI Needs on procurement which is slightly different from other sectors.
“Almost 75-80 per cent of NASENI activities is based on science and engineering, our method of procurement, is a little different, from the ministry of works, raw materials, etc. Again, you must build your capacity to be able to cope, which is why we are having this training, to build capacity in line with NASENI needs and mandate”, the Director added.
According to him, building capacity is a continuous exercise and procurement is all about law end to end, adding that the officers working in procurement must be trained from time to time to equip them with new trends.
Mohammed also noted that with the Standard Operation Procedure globally and the World Bank new version on procurement, NASENI cannot work differently, it must key into global practices.
He explained that most of the resource persons for the training programme were from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) based on NASENI’s agreement with the Bureau to assist in building the capacity of procurement and relevant officers in the agency.
Also speaking on the upcoming in-house procurement training, BPP consultant, Mr. Adekoya Olatunji, said: “The In-house training that is coming up in NASENI is very good, it will enable the officers to adhere strictly to procurement Act. What NASENI is doing is very good, so that the officers will do what they need to do very well“.
Some of the topics of the training programme with the theme ‘Building the Best Procurement Operations in NASENI System-Wide’ are Effective Procurement Practices & PPA 2007, Procurement Planning, Procurement Record Keeping Procedures, Contract Agreement and Implications.
