By Lilian Ukagwu
The Federal Government through the Ministry of Aviation has held bidders’ conferences for the aerotropolis and cargo terminal development, in line with the criteria in the Public-Private Partnership procurement phase.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, noted that the conference was in fulfilment of the provisions of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act and National Policy on Public-Private Partnership.
According to a statement by Sani Datti for the Special Assistant to the Minister on Public Affairs, James Odaudu, the conference was held in Abuja on Monday.
Sirika in his remarks said, “Government is committed to the projects and that is why is taking time because of due diligence as ICRC is superintended the process.
He said as an entity regulating PPP, we follow their template so that public gets the value for the money.
“The present administration is not willing to sale public properties but willing to make them better, by giving them to the private sector to make them better so that there is value for the money,” he added.
Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Muhammed Shehu, who doubles as Chairman, Project Delivery Team said the Ministry is in the procurement phase for the selection of preferred bidders for the projects.
He said the conference is designed to interface with the companies/consortia that were successful at the request for qualification stage and have been requalified to proceed to the request for proposal stage of the procurement phase.
“The programme is to enable the companies to make clarifications with the consultant on the areas in the request for proposal package and draft contract agreement. The result of the exercise will guide them in the pupation of both technical and financial proposals,” he explained.
The Director of Transport Infrastructure, ICRC, Emmanuel Onwadi, said at this stage of the transaction ICRC is willing and committed to making sure that we achieve the set standard in line with the aspiration of Nigerians.
He urged participants to feel free and ask questions for clarification, adding that stakeholder engagement will continue throughout the project’s lifespan. (Punch)