The World Bank has revealed that Nigerian companies have emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of development procurement globally, ranking fifth worldwide in contracts awarded to local contractors.

This was disclosed on Tuesday at the World Bank Group Business Opportunities Seminar held in Lagos.

Speaking at the event, the Vice President, Operations Policy and Country Services of the World Bank, Ms Gallina Vincelette, said, “Over the past five years, Nigerian suppliers have been awarded more than 6,800 World Bank-financed contracts. The total value is over two and a half billion dollars.

“More than half, more than 60 per cent of these awards have gone to the delivery of city works.

This is roads and bridges and hospitals and school construction. Basically, this sees Nigeria fifth globally by way of contracts awarded to locally based suppliers.

This is a very big achievement, and that’s why the budget minister also mentioned that the opportunities are not only in Nigeria, but also across Africa, where Nigerian companies can pursue and be competitive.”

In his opening remarks at the event, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, attributed Nigeria’s growing access to global procurement opportunities to recent economic reforms and strong international backing.

He said, “The last two and a half years have been years of reform, and the World Bank stood by us. Yes, we are members of the bank. We feel entitled from that point of view, but they will recognise that our president took what may be, in the history of economies, one of the most courageous combinations of choices that have ever been taken by a political leader, maybe around the world.

He was not unmindful of other countries in the sub-region, where there was even disaffection with democracy. It didn’t help matters because he was the chairman of ECOWAS; he didn’t hesitate to make choices that were brave or courageous or necessary, which were expedient to move Nigeria in the right direction. Among several support groups, in particular, the World Bank stands out.”

Charging Nigerian companies to take advantage of the opportunities, Bagudu said, “Our president believes in our capacity. So, we believe our construction companies, our artisans, and our service providers can increase globally, and this opportunity that has been provided by the bank is quite well appreciated.”

Bagudu also disclosed that the World Bank, IFC and MIGA were going to sign an agreement to begin support for project operations, which would create room for private entities to generate projects capable of absorbing capital and supporting economic growth.

Highlighting the scale of opportunities available to Nigerian firms beyond the country, Vincelette disclosed that the World Bank has a massive global procurement pipeline.

She said, “Here on this slide, we see a couple of numbers. One is $250 bn. This is what we have approved, or net commitments that are available, and it’s already approved by our board and available to be delivered in projects, in financing to governments across the world. We also see another number here, which is 40,000. 40,000 is the number of procurement opportunities which are out there for companies to basically deliver on these projects that are approved by our board.”

On job creation, the World Bank announced a mandatory local labour requirement in major contracts, a move expected to significantly boost employment in Nigeria.

Vincelette said, “The latest change we have put forward, which goes hand in hand with our jobs agenda, is a requirement of a minimum 30 per cent of local labour participation, 30 per cent of all labour cost that is in civil works contracts.”

She added, “We do that because when we invest in countries, we want to make sure that the countries actually invest in their people, that they give all the skills to work on more brand projects.”

The Director and Chief Procurement Officer of the World Bank, Ms Hiba Tahboub, during her presentation, said procurement reforms had fundamentally changed how contracts are awarded, shifting focus from lowest cost to quality and sustainability.

She said, “Since 1964, we have modified, we have updated, and we have upgraded our procurement frameworks so that we can respond to global challenges, match what the market dynamics are and how they change, and also respond effectively to our client country needs.”

Tahboub added, “In March 2025, we mandated the weighted criteria. Basic criteria are quality criteria. So, if safety is a major issue, then rated criteria will provide an opportunity to reward those contractors who propose better safety plans.”

On energy access, IFC Director for Central Africa and Nigeria, Ms Dahlia Khalifa, said Nigeria was central to the World Bank Group’s Mission 300 initiative.

She said, “We currently estimate that about 600 million people across the continent are without access to power, and our objective by 2030 is to bring that down by 300 million working with the African Development Bank.”

Khalifa added, “Nigeria is a signatory as a compact country to this initiative, and we do that with the public side of what is needed to put in place policy and infrastructure investments and the crowding in of the private sector.”

She also disclosed that IFC’s financial commitment to Nigeria remains strong and growing, saying, “Right now, we have a portfolio in Nigeria of about $1.3 bn, which is what we have funded from our own balance sheets.”

She added, “Last year alone, we brought about five billion dollars to Nigeria, and that is the case that we haven’t seen for the past four years, but that’s not enough. Our ambition is much higher.”

Representing the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, Folasade Ambrose, said Lagos was positioning itself as a hub for World Bank-backed opportunities.

She said, “As Africa’s largest sub-national economy and Nigeria’s commercial centre, Lagos State is both a major market and a major investment destination. Lagos currently offers robust PPP and investment opportunities across strategic sectors, including transportation, power and energy, healthcare, waste management and digital economy.”

Ambrose also highlighted Lagos State’s focus on SMEs and women’s participation in global trade.

“We trained 253 businesses for export readiness under the Lagos State Export Readiness Programme, and 189 of them were women,” she said. “I look forward to sharing the 253 trained businesses on how they can submit procurement bids.”

Speaking during the panel discussion, the Director -General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Chinyere Almona, highlighted the high cost of finance as one of the bottlenecks hindering SMEs’ participation in the procurement process.

She said, “The other thing I consider a bottleneck is the visibility of the procurement contracts, as most people do not know when they are available for bidding. But now I have seen that there is a portal people can visit to know what is available.”

She further explained that the changes introduced by the World Bank in 2025 in the procurement process have taken care of some of the impediments, which showed that the bank is responsive to its communities.

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Nigeria, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, observed a shift in the narrative about public procurement in Nigeria, moving from transactional to strategic operational engagement.

“Historically, there has been mistrust about public sector procurement that has been seen as transactional. But currently the narrative is changing to making procurement strategic, tactical and operational. This means that we have identified skills and capacity in the public sector to align them with the private sector through certain initiatives. We are now positioning public procurement as an enabler where we are able to tell the private sector that we are coming clean and being transparent,” he said.

Adedokun disclosed that the BPP had also come up with a programme called the ‘Sustainable Procurement Environment and Social Standard Enhancement Project’, which uses technology to drive procurement and provide real-time capacity building for public sector procurement practitioners.