BY Wasilat Azeez
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has pre-qualified four firms and issued them with the request for proposal (RFP) for the concession of the Calabar and Kano free trade zones (FTZs).
Alex Okoh, BPE director-general, announced the pre-qualification at the bidders’ pre-bid conference for the concession of the two FTZs in Abuja on Monday.
He said Diamond Stripes Consortium and BUA International Limited pre-qualified for both the Calabar and Kano FTZ.
Northwest Petroleum and Gas Company Limited were shortlisted for Calabar FTZ only while Urban Shelter Infrastructure Limited was prequalified for only the Kano FTZ.
Okoh said the bidders are expected to submit their proposals on or before December 2, 2022.
“Thereafter, the technical proposals will be publicly opened the same day and evaluated subsequently,” a statement issued on Tuesday by Uzoma Ibeh, BPE head of public communications, quoted Okoh as saying.
“The bidders are also expected to submit, along with their proposals, the draft concession agreement that has been reviewed or tracked with each page signed or initialled.”
Okoh said that the pre-bid conference was a continuation of the federal government’s ongoing efforts to diversify the country’s economy and fast-track its industrialisation by unlocking the potential of the two FTZs.
“Specifically, the purpose of this meeting is to engage with the prospective bidders, financing institutions, and contractors, to elicit discussions and address key concerns with respect to the transactions,” he said.
“We also seek to use this event to provide clarifications on vital issues around the bid documents which we believe should allow bidders to better contextualise and understand the bidding process and prerequisites.”
While stating the vital roles of FTZs in the economic growth and development of several countries in southeast Asia and southern America particularly China, India, Brazil and Mexico, including some African countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, the BPE DG said that these countries have leveraged on special economic zones (SEZs) to fast-track industrialisation, diversify their economies, create jobs, and generate foreign direct investments (FDI).
He, however, regretted that efforts to replicate the success of the FTZ model in Nigeria have not yielded the desired results, owing to many reasons including deficient and obsolete infrastructure, and over-reliance on the treasury for funding, amongst others.
To check this trend, he said the federal government, through the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), had in 2018, approved the reform of the Kano and Calabar FTZs to transform them, through private sector participation into important pillars and enablers for the federal government’s drive towards diversification, growth and development of the Nigerian economy.
“Following Council’s approval, a Transaction Implementation Committee (TIC) under the chairmanship of the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment with membership drawn from relevant stakeholders including NEPZA, Ministry of Justice, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, BPE was constituted to drive the reform process,” he explained.
“In addition, Ernst & Young Consortium was engaged as the Transaction Adviser for the concession of the two Zones.
In his remarks, Adesoji Adesugba, managing director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), represented by Adewale Folowosele, his special adviser, congratulated the pre-qualified bidders for getting to that stage of the concession of the two FTZs.
He commended the BPE for pursuing the transaction relentlessly and described the event as an important milestone for all stakeholders involved in the transaction.
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