APPN 2nd General Assembly in Eswatini
MBABANE – The African Public Procurement Network (APPN) Second General Assembly (SGA) will be hosted in Eswatini this year.
This was mentioned by Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency (ESPPRA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vusi Matsebula in an interview yesterday.
Matsebula said the SGA will be a four day event from November 14 to 17, 2022 and it will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Mbabane. He said the theme for this year’s event would be Public procurement for Africa’s economic development - crisis, challenges and way forward.
Hosting
“The Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini, through the Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency as the current Chair of the African Public Procurement Network, is hosting the Second General Assembly of the Network in Eswatini from November 14 to 17, 2022 to be held at the Hilton Garden Inn, Mbabane,” mentioned the CEO.
Matsebula further mentioned that APPN was established in Lome, Togo in October 2018 and was the largest formal public procurement network, which comprises of almost all African countries.
He said the main purpose of the APPN was to provide a platform for research, learning and networking to public procurement policymakers, regulators and practitioners of its member countries.
“The Assembly will host delegates from the 54 heads of public procurement regulatory authorities from the networks’ member countries, representatives of the
World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, representatives from local organisations in the private sector, SMEs, construction sector, civil society, public sector and other key bodies,” he added.
Topics
The CEO further stated that topics to be covered in the SGA include public procurement and its relevance for development and economic growth in Africa through harmonisation of laws and practices, complementary policy objectives, promotion of private sector, control corruption and public service delivery.
He mentioned that they would also discuss public procurement system development challenges in Africa and how African countries are dealing with them.
The CEO also mentioned that environmentally and socially responsible procurement, harmonisation of public procurement legislation/regulation and practices in Africa will be discussed in detail.
“Using public procurement data to support sustainable as well as inclusive economic development data to support sustainable and inclusive economic development cannot be left out,” he added.