ZIMBABWE has assumed the African Public and Procurement Network (APPN) chairmanship and presidency, a role that will be used to promote development and continental integration in public procurement processes.
APPN is an association which brings together public procurement entities in 46 African countries. It was created in 2018 in Lomé, Togo, where it is headquartered.
APPN’s seeks to promote development and regional integration through member states with a view to improving public procurement processes.
In his acceptance speech, APPN’s new president, Clever Ruswa, said they would ensure that the objectives of the organisation were taken on board locally.
Ruswa is the CEO of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz).
“I’m happy to assume the presidency of the African Public Procurement Network and the chairmanship that is coming. It is a great honour to our nation, and we are going to make sure that the objectives of the APPN are taken on board, especially on issues of benchmarking of the best practices across the board and standardisation,” he said.
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“Now that we have established a Public Procurement Training Academy, we will make sure that we take some of our colleagues concerns, the gap that they have seen in the market, and we will also try to extend such activities to their respective jurisdiction.”
Zimbabwe last month assumed the chairmanship role, which ends in November next year.
He said Praz was happy the new role would help achieve Agenda 2063 as well as the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Agenda 2063 is Africa’s development blueprint to achieve inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development over a 50-year period.
The APPN aims to promote horizontal technical cooperation, exchanges of training and experiences between its members.
It also seeks to strengthen the capacities of institutions responsible for public procurement in African countries and to create partnerships between the different public procurement players.
APPN wants to mobilise its members to promote the sharing of information and the exchange of experiences with a view of strengthening the harmonisation of processes and the convergence of policies, among other things.