The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) saved Nigeria approximately N1.1 trillion within one year by implementing a Price Intelligence Unit to monitor and evaluate public project costs. Director-General Dr Adebowale Adedokun disclosed the figure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, attributing the savings to a data-driven approach that benchmarks project costs against national and global market prices. The unit, composed of professionals in quantity surveying, architecture, engineering, and related fields, developed a comprehensive data bank of unit rates that accounts for regional price differences and inflation. Previously, government agencies received blanket approvals from the BPP and later set project costs without further oversight, leading to inconsistent pricing across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Under the new system, all project costs must be evaluated by the Price Intelligence Unit before approval, preventing agencies from unilaterally determining expenses after receiving no-objection clearance. Adedokun stated that discrepancies between proposed agency budgets and the unit's market-based assessments accounted for the N1.1 trillion in savings. Some agencies have since returned to request approval to reallocate portions of the saved funds toward additional projects, increasing the government's project capacity without additional spending. He emphasized that quality remains central to procurement, with cases of suspected compromise referred to anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC and ICPC. President Bola Tinubu has directed the establishment of a national monitoring and evaluation framework to improve project oversight, with accountability extended to supervising professionals whose certified projects fail. Adedokun also clarified that contracts are not awarded based on the lowest bid but on the lowest evaluated responsive bid, which balances technical competence and realistic pricing. Contractors submitting implausibly low quotes, such as pricing a bag of cement at N5,000 when the market rate is N12,000, are disqualified to prevent substandard outcomes.
The N1.1 trillion saved through price benchmarking exposes how loosely project costs were managed before the Price Intelligence Unit was created. If agencies were able to propose such inflated figures with prior approval, it suggests systemic leniency rather than mere oversight gaps. The fact that contractors still attempt bids with unrealistic pricing indicates weak deterrence in past procurement enforcement. Now that savings are being reinvested into more projects, scrutiny must remain on whether quality controls are enforced equally across all new contracts.
Editorial note: AI-assisted opinion, not established fact. Full disclaimer →
