Worrying new trend in bids for Africa's infrastructure upgrades

Unsolicited bids or proposals for infrastructure projects are becoming more commonplace in Africa – opening up a whole sphere of concern for an already heavily burdened sector. Loosely defined, unsolicited bids are proposals from the private sector to improve infrastructure without a call by a government for the project – and with no tender process involved. According to Nkosana Moyo, director of MINDS, while unsolicited bids undoubtedly speed up delivery of infrastructure, they are also often associated with a lack of competition and transparency. According to Moyo, one of the concerns from an African point of view is that only South Africa has a framework in place to deal with these bids. For Ebrima Faal, a regional director of the Southern Region African Development Bank, it is imperative that more countries develop similar legal frameworks – and that those frameworks are harmonised across the continent. “The issue of corruption remains a massive challenge and already several countries are finding themselves in murky water. The first step is going to be to empower governments to draw up the necessary legal frameworks to allow for a competitive process to still take place.” INSERT ‘Unsolicited bids often associated with a lack of competition and transparency.’