News Highlights:
- NASENI’s CEO, Mr. Khalil Halilu, emphasized that achieving the agency’s goals requires a high level of professional proficiency in procurement management.
- He stressed the importance of equipping officers with the necessary skills to align with the agency’s vision and fully comply with the Public Procurement Act of 2007.
The Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, has said that achieving the Agency’s goals require a high level of professional proficiency and technical expertise in procurement management.
Halilu who said this call is essential in order to achieve the overall mandate and goals of the agency, stated that the Agency wanted to be the best in everything it does in order to deliver quality services to achieve the overall goals of Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
He spoke while presenting his welcome address at the opening ceremony of the 2024 three-day in-house training for procurement officers and other participating staff from NASENI system-wide, which commenced on Tuesday in Abuja.
The EVC/CEO while highlighting the importance of the training, said it was designed to equip officers involved in procurement with the professional capacity needed to manage NASENI’s procurement processes effectively and in full compliance with the Public Procurement Act 2007.
While assuring that NASENI was committed to complying with everything outlined in the Act, he said “the importance of the workshop cannot be overstated, particularly for newly hired or deployed officers. It is essential that incumbent officers are trained and retrained to align with NASENI’s vision and mandate.”
He encouraged participants to apply what they learn in their daily work to make a positive impact in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities, and urged them to take the training seriously and benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience shared by the resource persons, ultimately leading to improved service delivery.
In his keynote address, the Acting Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Barr. Olusegun Omotola, represented by the Director of Training, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, emphasized that NASENI plays a vital role in national infrastructure development, and highlighted the importance of building skills and competencies to ensure transparent and efficient public procurement, which guarantees value for money.
He noted that every government agency must comply with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Circulars on procurement plans and procurement records and that no procurement process could commence without properly approved procurement plan via the use of the NOCOPO system and must have a full-fledged procurement department/unit/division manned by BPP trained/certified officers.
In addition, he urged NASENI to be very thorough and careful in the discharge of its responsibilities in the public procurement process with the highest sense of accountability, ethics and integrity, saying it is expected that at the end of the training, all factors militating against effective performance of procurement related activities and budget implementation would have been addressed.
