By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
Federal Ministry of Works and Housing has shortlisted 12 bidders for concession of federal high ways .
The concluded evaluating proposals submitted for phase one of the Value-Added Concession (VAC) under the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI).
This was contained in statement signed and issued by Hakeem Bello, Special Adviser on Communication to the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, recently, said the VAC Request for Proposal (RFP) evaluation report was presented and approved at a Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting chaired by the Minister.
The statement noted that Members of the steering committee were drawn from the Ministries of Works & Housing, Environment, Finance, Budget & National Planning and Justice, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, and Bureau of Public Enterprises attended the meeting.
Speaking, the Head, Public-Private-partnership (PPP) Unit of the ministry, Abimbola Asein, disclosed that the project delivery team had concluded the evaluation of the Bidders’ technical and Financial proposals and proposed referred/reserved bidders had been identified.
She, however, explained that the HDMI Project Steering Committee reserves the right to disqualify any preferred bidder found to have supplied inaccurate or misleading information or to be unable to reach a mutual agreement on the Project’s Technical and Financial Parameters following due diligence .
“After deliberating on the prayers presented by the project delivery team, the Committee approved the prayers and adopted amendments agreed on during the meeting,” she said.
The PSC reiterated the importance of due diligence on the preferred bidders and recommended the constitution of a team made up of high-ranking officials from the relevant Ministries, noting that this would help achieve value for money for Nigeria during negotiations.
The first phase of the VAC under the HDMI seeks to concession 12 economically viable road corridors to technically and financially capable private sector firms/consortia.
The 12 highways which represent 1,963km or 5.6% of Nigeria’s 35,000km Federal Highway are as follows: Benin-Asaba, Abuja-Lokoja, Kano-Katsina, Onitsha-Owerri-Aba, Sagamu-Benin and Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga Highways; the others are Kano-Maiduguri (Kano-Shuarin), Kano-Maiduguri (Potiskum-Damaturu), Lokoja-Benin, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba, Lagos-Otta-Abeokuta and Lagos-Badagry-Seme Border.
The rationale behind the HDMI, a private sector engagement, is to provide alternative sources of financing for road development and management in the country.
It is consistent with the provisions of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) Establishment Act 2005; National Policy on Public-Private Partnership (“N4P”); Federal Highways Act CAP. 135, 1971; and Federal Roads and Bridges Tolling Policy.
The scope of VAC under the HDMI includes the expansion, re-alignment, rehabilitation, and maintenance of the existing road pavements and bridges; construction of interchanges and pedestrian crossings and construction and operations of tolling facilities.
