The government of Tanzania has allocated a total budget of 38trn/- to its procurement entities, facilitated through the National e-Procurement System of Tanzania (NeST) for local and foreign bidders to execute public development projects in the financial year 2023/24.

The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) oversees the NeST, which has registered 62,000 tender contracts valued at 10 trillion shillings awarded to various bidders. 

PPRA's Director General, Dennis Simba, announced that real-time monitoring of development project proclamations has saved approximately 2.7trn/- since the system's enrollment.

Tanzania is leading in government tender awards with 37 tenders, followed by China with 28, Kenya with 21, South Africa with 18, and the United Arab Emirates with 10. 

To empower local firms, the PPRA is enhancing the capacity of Tanzanian companies, ensuring that tenders worth up to 50bn/- are reserved for them under the Public Procurement Act, Cap. 410 of 2023. As of last month, 210 special groups had secured tenders totaling 9.8 billion shillings through NeST.

Furthermore, the PPRA has reported savings of around 15 billion shillings from project inspections using an electronic tracking system for government procurements. By the end of last month, 21,000 procuring institutions and over 28,000 bidders were registered in the NeST system.

Simba highlighted that the new procurement law mandates that procuring institutions allocate 30 percent of their annual procurement budgets to special groups, including youth, women, and persons with disabilities. As of October, 500 billion shillings had been disbursed to these groups via NeST.

The Public Procurement Act, Chapter 410, regulates public procurement in Tanzania, introducing several significant provisions in its 2023 version. These include sustainable procurement principles, domestic preference for up to 15 percent for locally produced goods and services during competitive tenders, and a requirement for e-procurement. 

The act also specifies indicative pricing based on market conditions and mandates that contractors have policies for child protection and vulnerable populations. Additionally, suppliers must adhere to international labor standards.

The PPRA operates six zonal offices across Tanzania to ensure compliance and facilitate effective procurement practices.