Concession of 33 grain silos across Nigeria reaches final stage – Lokpobiri

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Heineken Lokpobiri, has revealed that Federal government has concluded the processes of the financial bid opening, evaluation and selection of the successful bidders for the concession of 33 grain silos in the country.
Lokpobiri, in Abuja, on Wednesday, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the concession of the silos at an indicative value of 51.66 million dollars had reached the final stage.
According to him,  the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in collaboration with the Public Private Partnership (PPP) unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance, had invited prospective investors or operators to express interest in the operation and management of 33 silo complexes in the country.
Lokpobiri, however, said that the concession had become imperative, because the components, maintenance process, spare parts, security and some other incidental cost of the silos were not presented to the ministry by the previous administration before the silos were handed over.
“Between the project completion time of the silos and when they were handed over to the government, some equipment vandalism had already taken place.
“So, the government decided that, in order to maximise the use of the silos and save cost, they should be given to the private sector; so adverts were made, some people expressed interest and evaluation is being done.
“The Ministry of Agriculture is doing this in collaboration with Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC),’’ he said.
Lokpobiri said that it was a very cumbersome process but the details of infrastructure and other necessary inputs had been worked out with the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), to promote transparency and the principle of due process.
He added that the process was at the final stage now.