President Bola Tinubu has approved a new debarment policy that will sanction contractors who execute substandard projects or abandon government jobs.
Tinubu
The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Adebowale Adedokun, disclosed this in an exclusive interview in Abuja, explaining that the policy empowers the government to blacklist erring contractors both locally and internationally.
“Debarment policy means if a contractor does a bad job, if a contractor fails to deliver quality work, that contractor can be blacklisted,” Adedokun said. “Once a contractor who has collected government money refuses to do the job, or does a bad job, or did not complete the job, we will recommend blacklisting of that company, not only in Nigeria but internationally.”
He stressed that the policy is not only punitive but also designed to reward competence, noting that contractors who deliver quality work will continue to be supported. He cited ongoing infrastructure projects as evidence of improving standards.
“Please take a ride to Lagos–Calabar; you will see quality of job. Take a ride to Abuja–Kaduna–Kano; you will see good job. Take a look at the ongoing work between Mararaba and Keffi. Look at electricity; today, there’s a lot of improvement,” he said. “This is because everything that they want to buy, every equipment they want to buy, they must show us specifications.”
Adedokun said the BPP will also intensify enforcement of local content policies in line with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, including new initiatives targeted at women, youths and vulnerable groups.
“We are now going to enforce the Nigerian First policy as directed by Mr. President. We are going to introduce community-based procurement,” he said. “And with all of this, the women affirmative procurement—these are new things that the President wants to unleash in procurement so that the youth, the women, and vulnerable groups will have certain projects given to them.”
According to the BPP boss, these reforms are already yielding financial benefits. He disclosed that the agency saved the Federal Government about ₦1.1 trillion within one year by blocking inflated contract sums and tightening scrutiny of public projects.
“When I resumed, what I noticed was that the President has outlined a lot of initiatives under the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said. “The question was how to ensure procurement does not become a bottleneck. What we did was to make procurement an enabler—an instrument for transparency, accountability, and value for money.”
He explained that a dedicated Price Intelligence Unit was established to benchmark project costs and prevent overpricing, allowing government funds to stretch further.
“If a hospital was proposed at ₦10 billion and benchmarking shows it should be ₦9 billion, that ₦1 billion saved can now be used for other projects,” Adedokun said.
“In some cases, agencies that would have bought 10 vehicles were able to get 15 because of the savings.”
He expressed confidence that the reforms would help curb corruption, improve public service delivery and reduce poverty.
“You will see a rapid, massive transformation in the way Nigerians do things,” he said. “Let’s put Nigerian people first, and with that, we can achieve the dream of a Nigeria that works for everyone.”
