Tanzania to shift to new e-procurement

Dar es Salaam. The National E-Procurement System of Tanzania (NeST), which will allow companies to participate in the tendering process online will go live in July, 2023, Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) has said.

PPRA head of Capacity Building Mr Castor Komba said on Wednesday that they are finalising a few things to enable the system to take off.

“We have decided to introduce Nest and phase out the Tanzania Electronic Procurement System (TANePS). This system had a lot of challenges. But the new system is user friendly,” he said.

He made the remarks at a stakeholders meeting organised by Germany development agency (GIZ) yesterday.

Explaining about procurement opportunities, Mr Komba said there are a lot of public procurement opportunities that are not fully utilized by many local companies.

“The law favours them. In every national and international tender, we have exclusive rates dedicated for locals only,” he said.

According to him, 30 percent of the government’s procurement budget is reserved to special groups, namely, women, youth, elderly and people with disabilities.

Officiating the event, the director of SMEs in the Ministry for Industry and Trade Mr  Willfred Kahwa said that the tendering process has been subject to complaints from  SMEs.

“We are happy with GIZ’s support. They have come up with SMEs development project bidding management training. Once the new system starts, it will strengthen and simplify issues related to tendering,” he said.

“The government will ensure the system is successful. We encourage as many locals as possible to participate in tendering processes,” he added.