The Kogi State Adolescent Girls’ Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) Project has opened 61 bids for the construction of 28 combined Junior and Senior Secondary Schools across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state.
The public bid opening, held in Lokoja on Wednesday, was conducted under Component 1.1 of the AGILE Project.
Speaking at the exercise, the State Project Coordinator of Kogi AGILE, Alhaji Ahmed Tijani Oricha, said the intervention was aimed at providing safe and conducive learning environments while expanding educational opportunities for adolescent girls across the state.
Oricha said the project secured fresh approval from the World Bank for the construction of the 28 schools, adding that the intervention would benefit more than 100 students.
He stressed that transparency, accountability and adherence to quality standards would guide the implementation of the project. He also noted that all participating bidders had been given the opportunity to inspect the project sites.
The State Project Coordinator urged the bidders to adhere to the procurement requirements and assured them that the evaluation process would be conducted in accordance with the applicable guidelines.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Education, Hon. Wemi Jones, described the exercise as an opportunity to further strengthen education interventions in Kogi State, noting the challenges associated with funding the education sector.
Jones said the partnership represented a significant development for the state’s education sector and expressed optimism that the intervention would contribute to a more equitable and accessible education system.
He urged the participating bidders to trust the procurement process and accept its outcome in good faith, assuring that the exercise would be conducted transparently and in line with due process.
Before the opening of the bids, representatives of the participating contractors and observers witnessed the inspection of the bid box. The Procurement and Evaluation Teams confirmed that the box was securely locked and showed no indication of tampering.
The bid documents were subsequently removed and counted, with 61 bids confirmed to have been received before the 12 noon deadline. The names of bidders, bid prices and other information required under the bidding documents were publicly read and recorded in the official Bid Price Read-Out Sheet.
A representative of the Civil Society Organisation, Mr. Audu Emmanuel, commended the transparency of the exercise, while Mr. Adeolu Oshadare, Procurement Officer with L-PRESS, also praised the conduct of the process.
Clarifying the next stage of the procurement, Oricha explained that the public opening did not determine the successful or unsuccessful bidders, as all submitted bids would undergo detailed evaluation in accordance with the applicable procurement requirements.
He said approximately four weeks would be allocated for the evaluation process, after which the outcome would be communicated to the participating bidders through the official channels specified in the bidding documents.
