• IFC facilitates $5bn investments

Nigeria-based suppliers were awarded more than 6,800 World Bank–financed contracts, with a total value of $2.5 billion in the last five years, while the private sector arm of the Multilateral Development Bank (MDB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), mobilised about $5 billion investment into the country last year.

This was disclosed at a business opportunities seminar organized by the bank in Lagos, yesterday. The seminar aimed to highlight some of the procurement and investment opportunities that are available to local companies that participate in its projects.

According to the Vice President, Operations Policy and Country Services (OPCS) at the World Bank, Ms. Gallina Vincelette, “over the past five years, Nigeria-based suppliers have been awarded more than 6,800 World Bank–financed contracts, which is a total value of $2.5 billion. More than 60 per cent of these awards have gone to the delivery of civil works, including roads, bridges, hospitals and school construction.

“There are also opportunities not only in Nigeria, but across Africa, where Nigerian companies can participate. Looking more broadly across Africa, over the same five-year period, World Bank–financed projects have awarded more than 9,000 contracts with a total value of close to $45 billion, underscoring the scale and depth of opportunities across the region.”

Also in her presentation, the Director for Central Africa and Nigeria at the IFC, Ms. Dahlia Khalifa, stated: “IFC is very committed to Nigeria. We’ve been here for decades. We hope to be here for decades and decades further, being as helpful and supportive to the development of Nigeria, achieving its objectives and keeping our eye on that North Star, which is jobs.

Of course, it is the private sector which is key to completely embrace and understand that, and therefore what we do is critical right now. “We have a portfolio in Nigeria which is $1.3 billion which is how much we have funded from our own balance sheet, and again, that’s not all talked about, how much we crowded in terms of mobilisation using multiples of this.

In fact, last year alone, we brought about $5 billion dollars to Nigeria, and that is the case we have been seeing for the past three or four years. But that’s not enough. Our ambition is much higher.

Our ambition is to mobilise as much private capital to Nigeria as possible to help you grow your businesses and help create as many jobs as possible.”

In his opening remarks, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, thanked the World Bank for what he said was the Bank’s support for the difficult, but courageous reforms embarked upon by the current administration.

He said: “We are here with a visiting team led by the (Bank’s) Vice President of Operations Policy, as I was told in a private chat, to begin to encourage Nigerian companies, Nigerian entrepreneurs, Nigerian service providers, to look at the World Bank’s proposal across the world and as an entry and step into procurement worldwide. “I think that is amazing. We, our President, believe in our capacity.

And our entrepreneurs are celebrated everywhere. So we believe our construction companies, our artisans, our service providers, have an ability to compete globally. And this opportunity that will be provided by the Bank is quite well appreciated.”

Speaking during the panel session at the event, the Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Chinyere Almona, said that high cost of finance was among the challenges hindering SMEs participation in the procurement process, adding that it is often difficult for banks to grant facilities to SMEs.

She said: “The other thing I consider a bottleneck is the visibility of the procurement contracts as most people do not know when they are available for bidding. But now I have seen that there is a portal people can visit to know what is available.” She also said that the changes introduced by the World Bank in the procurement process in 2025 had addressed some of the impediments.

Also, participating in the panel discussion, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) Nigeria, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, noted that the narrative was changing currently on the perception of public procurement in Nigeria from transactional to strategic operational engagement.

Adedokun said: “Historically, there has been mistrust about public sector procurement that has been seen as transactional. But currently the narrative is changing to making procurement strategic, tactical and operational.

This means that we have identified skills and capacity in the public sector to align them with the private sector through certain initiatives. “We are now positioning public procurement as an enabler where we are able to tell the private sector that we are coming clean and being transparent.”