BY OWETHU DLAMINI
MBABANE – In pursuit of economic development for Africa.
The Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency (ESPPRA) with the support of the government, the World Bank, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB) and other stakeholders is hosting a four-day 2nd African Public Procurement Network (APPN) General Assembly at the Hilton Hotel. This is according to a statement by ESPPRA on their social media pages and will be taking place from November 14 to November 17, 2022.
The theme of the 2nd APPN General Assembly is ‘Public Procurement for Africa’s economic development-crisis challenges and way forward’ and according to ESPPRA is set to provide a regional cooperation platform for enhancing public procurement as a tool to promote economic development in Africa.
According to Vusumutiwendvodza Matsebula, ESPPRA CEO, the topics that would be discussed during the four-day conference would include Global Procurement Partnership and Sustainable Development, Public procurement and its relevance for development and economic growth in Africa, Public Procurement system development challenges in Africa and how African countries are dealing with them and factoring in public procurement data to support sustainable and inclusive economic development to name a few.
During today’s conference, the Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg, stated in his speech that the government recognised the importance of the network in providing a platform for research, learning and networking to public procurement policy makers, regulators and practitioners of its member countries.
“The second General Assembly is a forum for key stakeholders in public procurement to engage constructively on key procurement challenges and provide solutions that will promote economic development,” said Rijkenberg.
He further stated that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy, including that of Eswatini was faced with diverse challenges characterised by sluggish economic growth, a fiscal crisis, high levels of unemployment, high levels of poverty and inequalities among others. He mentioned that through the assembly, he believed that public procurement performance would improve and positively impact Africa’s economic development.
According to the APPN website, the first APPN General Assembly was hosted by the Government of Senegal in November 2019. It was aimed at achieving its overarching goal of providing the heads of public procurement and other key stakeholders of the APPN member countries a platform of learning and networking.
