The Federal Government is developing a National Policy on Affirmative Procurement to expand access to public contracts for women-owned and women-led businesses, as the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) identified public spending as a potential instrument for enterprise development, job creation, and economic inclusion.

The Director-General of the BPP, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, who disclosed this at the opening of the 2026 International Conference of the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) in Abuja yesterday, said the proposed policy would introduce deliberate mechanisms to bring historically underrepresented businesses into Nigeria’s public procurement system.

The policy, according to the BPP, will include mechanisms such as quota allocation, joint bidding and subcontracting, creating pathways through which eligible women-owned businesses can participate in government contracting.

The DG said the initiative represented the first time Nigeria was developing an affirmative procurement framework specifically designed to align public procurement with broader objectives of economic inclusion, enterprise development and national development.

He said public procurement constituted a significant component of government expenditure and could therefore be deliberately structured to expand opportunities for businesses while maintaining value for money.

The initiative is particularly targeted at women-owned and women-led enterprises, which the BPP said often face structural barriers including limited access to finance, inadequate technical capacity and exclusion from large-scale contracting opportunities.

According to the Bureau, these barriers are not necessarily the product of deliberate discrimination but can arise from institutional and structural arrangements that have developed over time.

The proposed policy, it said, would seek to address those constraints without compromising the fundamental principles governing public procurement.

The BPP DG stressed that affirmative procurement should not be interpreted as preferential treatment without regard to competence.

He said rather the policy was intended to expand opportunities, strengthen supplier diversity and build the capacity of target businesses to compete effectively within the procurement system.

His policy is critical given the requirement for public procurement to balance inclusion with competition, transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility.

For women engineers, the proposed framework could potentially open a new route from professional practice into enterprise ownership.

The BPP said women engineers should not be confined to roles as employees or professionals within existing organisations but should be positioned to establish and expand engineering firms, consulting practices, construction companies, technology businesses and other enterprises capable of competing for public contracts.

The policy’s proposed mechanisms of quota allocation, joint bidding and subcontracting are expected to provide different entry points into the procurement market.

Joint bidding, for instance, could enable smaller firms that lack the financial or technical capacity to execute large contracts independently to partner with more established companies.

Subcontracting could similarly provide smaller women-owned enterprises with access to sections of major infrastructure projects while building their technical and financial capacity for larger contracts.

The BPP said the broader objective was to move women-owned businesses beyond marginal participation in the economy and position them as contractors, consultants, suppliers, innovators and employers of labour.

The Bureau argued that greater diversity among public-sector suppliers could broaden the productive base of the economy, support small and medium enterprises, stimulate innovation, strengthen local value chains and increase employment.

The policy is being introduced against the backdrop of growing demand for investment in energy and infrastructure, areas in which engineering expertise will be central to Nigeria’s development.

The BPP DG said the theme of the APWEN conference, ‘Designing Adaptive Systems: Engineering Energy, Building Net Zero, Delivering Tomorrow’s Infrastructure,’ was particularly relevant because Nigeria’s transition towards new energy systems and infrastructure would require women engineers to participate not only in designing projects but also in financing, procurement, construction and management.

He therefore urged APWEN to complement professional development with greater emphasis on procurement knowledge, enterprise development, strategic partnerships and the ability of women-owned firms to compete for government contracts.

The BPP said it was committed to embedding inclusion within the procurement architecture in a manner that remained legally sound, administratively practical and economically responsible.

The Bureau also called for collaboration with APWEN and other stakeholders to strengthen women’s capacity to participate effectively in public procurement.

If effectively implemented, the affirmative procurement framework could make government contracts a more deliberate channel for developing women-owned enterprises and integrating them into infrastructure and industrial value chains.

The Bureau said it expected to strengthen collaboration with APWEN and other stakeholders as work on the policy and wider procurement reforms continues.