Federal Govt. opens bid portal for concession of 12 major highways

The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing has formerly opened its e-portal for interested concessioners to bid for the management of 12 of the nation’s major highways earmarked for private management and improved maintenance of the major highway corridors in Nigeria.  

The e-portal: https://hdmi.worksandhousing.gov.ng which is now officially open for the submission of Requests for Qualification (FRQ) applications, contains all the information the public needs, including access to relevant documents, news updates and videos.

The Value-Added Concession (VAC) component of the HDMI as officially advertised, seeks to concession 12 federal highways to qualified individuals and consortia for management in the first phase.

The 12 highways which were carefully chosen to cover the six-geopolitical zones include the Benin-Asaba, Abuja-Lokoja, Kano-Katsina, Onitsha-Owerri, Shagamu-Benin, Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga and Kano-Maiduguri Expressways.

The others are Lokoja-Benin, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba, Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta and Lagos-Badagry Expressways. They amount to a total of 1,963.24 kilometres, which is 5.6 per cent of the 35,000km Federal road network.

According to a release by the Director of Publicity and Public Relations of the Ministry, Mrs. Boade Akinola, this initiative is in keeping with the efforts of the ministry to attract private sector resources and efficiency to the development and management of federal highways corridors under its new Highway Management and Development Initiative (HDMI).

Last week the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola disclosed that the portal would ensure competitiveness and guarantee transparency in the process.

He said that no staff of the ministry would interface with the public in the management of the HDMI which was conceived in 2020, from procurement to implementation.

“The portal is vital for e-procurement as it allows the management of the PPP procurement process for the VAC category and the process of approval and permits under the Unbundled Assets Approval (UAA).

“In addition, it includes a Vendors Market Place for the promotion of local businesses and vendors partnerships with prospective concessionaires, he said.

Essentially, the HDMI seeks to leverage private sector investment to improve facilities and operations on the selected 12 highways, maximize the routes’ revenue-generating potential and ensure international best practices in developing and managing the nation’s highways.

RovingNaija reports that the Federal Government is currently executing over 700 different contracts which aggregates to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of over 13,000 km of roads and bridges across all 36 states of the country including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.