CIPSMN advocates 80% allocation of budget expenditure to procurement

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria (CIPSMN) has tasked the nation’s economic managers to earmark 80 per cent of the nation’s budget on effective procurement activities to achieve an all inclusive economic growth.

The immediate past president and Registrar, CIPSMN, Muhammed Aliyu, explained that procurement is a profession not known too many people in the country and has continued to suffer huge neglect from the federal government despite its potential to transform the fortunes of the Nigerian economy.

Aliyu during the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN’s) yearly general assembly noted that procurement activities must take the largest chunk in budget planning.

In his words: “Procurement should take the lion share of any nation in its quest for economic development. About 70 to 80 per cent of the total budget should go into procurement activities.‎”

He said despite a public procurement act enacted in 2007, the organs meant to drive the act are yet to see the light of day, pointing out that the Institute is making a case for the regulatory bodies that established the act to be revived and up running.

“Procurement officers are critical to know how contracts should be awarded and followed up to make sure that the contract is carried out. The award I am receiving today is not for me alone, but for all the procurement professionals in the country who have suffered in this field because they have been denied their rightful place in the society‎,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, the president, APBN, Idris Omede, expressed concerns over the lack of patronage and recognition it receives from the federal government, saying that professionals are supposed to be the engine room and technical components to ensure key development policies and programmes for any nation that seeks economic growth.
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“The APBN is a collective point ‎where professionals from different sectors of economy brainstorm the way forward for economic development. We have not gotten the adequate recognition and patronage we require from the government and as an association, we are making case for regulatory bodies that are in place by the act that are establishing them. These bodies are not functioning and for those regulatory bodies to be constituted by law, it means they have a function to play,” he added.