The Federal Government is set to unveil a National Database of Contractors, Consultants and Service Providers (NDCCSP) to strengthen the screening, classification and management of companies seeking government contracts.

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Dr Adebowale Adedokun, said this in Abuja at a strategic engagement with professional bodies on public procurement reforms and professionalising procurement.

The BPP boss said the initiative, driven by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), is designed to categorise contractors and service providers by technical competence, areas of specialisation, financial capacity, and past performance before they participate in relevant public procurement opportunities.

The database is expected to give government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) centralised access to information on contractors, including their certifications, financial records, performance history, and compliance status.

Under the new categorisation and classification framework, contractors will no longer be treated as a homogeneous pool of suppliers, as eligibility for specific procurement opportunities will be linked to established capacity and competency criteria.

The BPP said the move aimed to address weaknesses in open participation without structured categorisation, which often results in large numbers of bids from firms with widely varying capacities and experience.

According to the bureau, the previous system made procurement evaluations more time-consuming because procuring entities had to expend significant resources determining which firms were appropriately qualified for specific contracts.

The absence of an integrated contractor-management database also made credential verification, compliance checks and procurement planning more difficult.

The proposed database is expected to provide a pre-validated pool of information that will enable procuring entities to identify companies with relevant experience and demonstrated capacity.

The system will also support digital tender publication and submission, digital contract management and dashboards for relevant stakeholders.

The BPP said the digital transformation would enhance transparency, efficiency and value for money by reducing paperwork, automating procurement workflows and providing real-time access to tender information and audit trails.

Rather than relying mainly on documents submitted for individual tenders, the central database is expected to give the government a more comprehensive picture of a contractor’s capacity, compliance record and performance history.

The BPP said the digital initiatives align with the Public Procurement Act 2007, particularly Section 6(1), which empowers the bureau to maintain a national database of federal contractors and service providers and prescribe classifications and categorisations for companies on the register.