The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Adebowale Adedokun, on Monday, announced that the bureau had successfully negotiated a savings of $115,000 on the Presidential Power Initiative, commonly known as the Siemens project.
In a statement to State House correspondents in Abuja, Adebowale emphasized the BPP’s vital role in protecting government interests through careful scrutiny and due diligence.
He explained, “One of the things that we have done is to look at the Siemens project. We went through negotiation. We scrutinised the request and learned that the government has saved about $115,000 through a negotiation.”
He continued, “So that is a plus already; in just two weeks, we went into deep review and negotiation, and they saw the benefit. That money would naturally have gone into that contract without anybody doing anything about it. But we have been able to say, ‘No, we are working for the interest of Nigeria. You must come down from your initial price based on our price intelligence.’”
Adebowale further highlighted the BPP’s crucial role in contract negotiations, stating, “BPP is that fulcrum that can defend the government regarding how much a contract should be when we do our proper deal due diligence.”
Earlier, the Federal Executive Council had approved a sum of N262.75bn (€161.33) for the first phase of the Siemens Project. This phase involves the engineering, procurement, construction, and financing of 330/132 KV and 132/33 KV substations in Onitsha, Offa, Abeokuta, Ayede, and Sokoto.
During the Federal Executive Council briefing at the Aso Rock Villa, the Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, shared that this approval came after the pilot phase of the project was 80 percent complete.
In addition, the Governments of Nigeria and Germany had signed the Presidential Power Initiative agreement on December 1, 2023, with the goal of adding 12,000 MegaWatts of electricity to Nigeria’s national grid.
This agreement was signed by President Bola Tinubu and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
The agreement was finalized by Kenny Anuwe, the Managing Director of the Federal Government of Nigeria Power Company, and Nadja Haakansson, the Managing Director (Africa) of Siemens AG.
The contracts, however, trace back to the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018.
As the new substantive BPP Chief, Adebowale, appointed on November 14, expressed the Bureau’s goal to achieve 100 percent budget implementation by adapting procurement processes to suit project complexity and fostering local participation.
