ARUSHA: THE government has successfully issued tenders worth 9.8bn/- to 210 special groups of people through the National e-Procurement System of Tanzania (NeST).
Director General of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), Mr Dennis Simba said this during the just ended 4th Annual General Meeting of the Association of Procurement and Supply in Arusha recently that targeted special groups of women, youth, the disabled and the elderly across the country.
He said until December 2024, a total of 210 groups of people under the specified categories have pocketed over 9.85 bn/- in government tenders, issued to their members through NeST.
Mr Simba explained that a total of 85 youth groups secured tenders valued at 3.9bn/-.
“These groups are made up of youngsters who have formed ventures that provide employment to fellow youth. There were also 84 women groups that secured tenders worth 4bn/-,“ he noted.
Mr Simba said that the government tenders worth 78m/- were granted to two special groups of old persons. He added that between July and December 2024 more than 3.2bn/- was disbursed to 117 groups in the country.
In another development, the Association of the Procurement and Supplies Professionals (APSP) is looking forward to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the PPRA aiming at working together in improving performance and achieving the set goals.
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According to the joint statement presented before Mr Simba, members of APSP want the proposed cooperation between the two entities to reinforce awareness training in matters of procurement, supplies and tendering.
The APSP Chairperson, Mr Emmanuel Urembo said that his association wanted to cooperate with PPRA in ten different areas, including the Training of Trainers on New Procurement Laws and Regulations, Enhancing Transparency in Procurement Operations and reviewing tender documents as well as improving the same.
Contributing further, Mr Simba, said the importance of the procurement sector should not be underestimated especially now that the government is undertaking major infrastructure projects across the nation.
“This entails bulk procurement of heavy equipment, materials and machinery and if the procedures are not well followed the government will incur major losses through procurement. It should also be taken into account that procurement takes more than 70 per cent of the annual national budgets in Tanzania,” he added.
