Federal government is set to implement the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) Project for the production of experts in procurement, environmental and social standards in the country for the first time in the history of higher education.
Consequently, six federal universities have been selected to host the project for the implementation.
The universities are the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi; Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria; Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (FUAM); Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO); University of Benin (UNIBEN) and the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
SPESSE is a multi-sectoral project, with support from the World Bank, which seeks to address training, professionalism and research in procurement, environmental and social standards, through certification, undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies; to support governance, increase transparency, competition, equal opportunity, sustainability as well as environmental and social standard management in the public and private sectors.
The project coordinator of SPESSE Project Implementation Unit National Universities Commission in Abuja, Dr Joshua Atah, said it will be implemented by the Commission, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), federal ministry of finance, budget and national planning; federal ministry of environment and federal ministry of women affairs and social development.
While addressing a stakeholders’ meeting, recently, executive secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, said he was excited at the potentials of SPESSE and the possibilities that it offered both the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy.
He stated that the six centres were selected through a very objective, competitive and rigorous selection process, while the project was designed with the full participation of the private sector, including the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, which represented the Industry in the design of the curricula by NUC.
Professor Rasheed commended the Vice-Chancellors of the selected universities for the key roles they played in developing the winning proposals and urged them to continue to support the Centres for the benefit of their universities, the Nigerian University System (NUS) and the country in general.
The Project Task Team Leader at the World Bank, Chief Bayo Awosemusi, disclosed that SPESSE, being the first of its kind for both the World Bank and Nigeria, the country will be the hub for Africa and it would take the six selected universities to make that happen. He commended Professor Rasheed for his unprecedented commitment to the success of the Project.
Source: leadership
