TheCable

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says 577 firms have indicated interest to secure the insurance renewal contract for its oil and non-oil assets.

In a statement signed by Ndu Ughamadu, its spokesman, the corporation said the bidding is part of its efforts to ensure transparency.

According to the statement, Modupe Bameke, NNPC group general manager, risk management and insurance, said the bidding is also a requirement of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

“The essence of this public bid opening is to ensure that the Corporation complies strictly with the provisions of the Bureau of Public Procurement Act (BPP),” the statement read.

“All the bids will be opened in the presence of everybody to ensure that all entries are properly captured in line with the transparency principle of the NNPC.”

Shehu Liman, group general manager, supply chain management, said the public opening bids measure is aimed at providing a level playing field for all bidding companies.

“The idea is to select broking and insurance companies that are credible and capable with track records of performance. What this means is that we are going to eliminate all those transactions that are not necessary,” he said.

A breakdown showed that 245 brokers tendered for oil assets, 251 brokers tendered for non-oil assets while 37 insurance companies tendered for oil assets and 44 tendered for non-oil assets.

Representatives of the companies which tendered bids applauded NNPC for sustaining the culture of transparency and accountability through the exercise.

Officials of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP); Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI); Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB); and National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) as well as members of the civil society who served as independent assessors were present at the event.