By Felix Khanoba
The World Bank has given Nigeria’s Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) project a satisfactory performance rating and approved additional financing to maintain the programme’s progress.
Supported by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the World Bank and the National Universities Commission (NUC), the SPESSE initiative was created to address the long-standing shortage of skilled professionals and the lack of formal academic pathways in procurement and environmental and social safeguards across the public and private sectors.
The project has addressed this gap through coordinated training programmes delivered by six centres of excellence located across Nigeria’s geopolitical zones, producing a growing pool of professionals trained in line with global best practices.
The World Bank reaffirmed its confidence in the programme during a recent Implementation Support Mission (ISM) convened to evaluate progress, review activities under the original financing arrangement and agree on actions to be undertaken with the Additional Financing (AF).
The mission was led by the World Bank Task Team Leader, Ishtiak Siddique, working alongside the National Project Coordinator, Dr Joshua Atah of the NUC.
According to the mission’s Aide Memoire, SPESSE has made notable progress since the previous assessment. All four Project Development Objective (PDO) indicators have been fully achieved, while overall Project Implementation Progress (IP) was rated satisfactory following verification covering the January 1–June 30, 2025, period.
Independent verification further confirmed that 12 of the 18 Performance-Based Conditions (PBCs) have already been met or surpassed.
An additional five PBCs are expected to be completed by June 30, 2026, with outstanding targets aligned with the project’s closing schedule.
During the mission, the World Bank delegation engaged with key stakeholders at the national and state levels, including the SPESSE National Facilitation Implementation Unit (NFIU) at the NUC, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the Federal Ministry of Environment and the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The team also assessed activities at the six Centres of Excellence hosted by Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; University of Benin; and the University of Lagos.
A Director in the International Economic Relations Department at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Stanley Nyeso George, noted that achieving an overall satisfactory rating at this stage of implementation is uncommon among donor-funded programmes.
He and other stakeholders praised the NUC, under both its current and previous leadership, as well as Dr Atah, for steering the project successfully. Centre Leaders and their teams were also commended for their commitment and measurable outcomes.
In recognition of these achievements, the World Bank approved additional financing to extend the project through June 2026, citing SPESSE’s improved results and consistency with its development goals.
With the new funding, the project is expected to advance procurement reforms, broaden online training delivery and further strengthen institutional capacity to deliver lasting benefits to Nigeria’s public sector, private enterprises and local communities.
In a related development, the Bureau of Public Procurement has begun moves to institutionalise the programme by making SPESSE courses compulsory for the professional certification of all procurement officers.
The post World Bank rates SPESSE project satisfactory as additional financing extends project to 2026 appeared first on SEARCHNG.NG THe Nigerian Search Engine.
