The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s novel Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) has met with huge interest from Nigerian and global businesses, particularly, the Request for Qualification stage of the value-added concession that ended at midnight on May 31, 2021.
Read Also: Economy awaits FG’s 300,000 housing units intervention 12 months after
This was discovered during the public bid-opening ceremony chaired by Babangida Hussaini, permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, held in Abuja in conjunction with the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) on Tuesday, June 1, 2021.
In what turned to be indicative of the positive reception of the PPP developmental initiative, a total of 1,052 applications were received across the available three categories under HDMI.
These included 694 under the Value-Added Concession (VAC), the part of the scheme that will see 12 selected federal highways concessioned to qualified and capable private sector participants. Incidentally, only 75 of these applications for the VAC completed the exercise before the RFQ closed.
Others include 62 applications for the Unbundled Assets Approval (UAA) and 296 for the Vendors’ Market Place.
According to a press statement signed by Boade Akinola, director of press and public relations, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, it will be recalled that Babatunde Fashola, the minister of works and housing, had issued a Ministerial Notice that the PPP procurement process for prospective private sector partners under HDMI will commence on March 29, 2021, with an RFQ advertisement and the opening of an e-portal for HDMI: www.hdmi.worksandhousing.gov.ng. The RFQ lasted for two months till 31 May 2021.
The public bid-opening ceremony marked the first time of accessing the e-portal for the RFQ exercise, and also served as the beginning of the evaluation stage for bidders that succeeded in completing their applications for the value-added concession under the HDMI.
