Immediate past Director General of Bureau of Public Procurement and price intelligence in Imo State, Chief Paschal Egwim said it was the role of strategic procurement to strike the crucial balance between short term cost savings and long-term delivery objectives of businesses, and pointed out that Chief Financial Officers and Chief Executive Officers would always have their eyes on driving down costs.
This was one of the perspectives offered by Egwim in his keynote at the high-impact educational symposium organised by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) with the theme: “Driving Value and Sustainability in Resource-Limited Settings via Strategic Procurement” held on Tuesday in Abuja.
He noted that focus should not just be on short term cost savings but also “on strategic cost organisations, cost avoidance, minimising cost drivers and increasing value drivers along the value chains, ultimately increasing value for money in all commercial dealings through the application of risk analysis and mitigation tools, spend analysis tools. Category management, contractor and supplier value analysis and positioning.”
Egwim told the quality audience of procurement professional that strategic procurement must also increase focus on building strong standards, systems, processes, technology and innovations that “provide solutions to emerging challenges like corruption and procurement fraud risks at every stage in the procurement value chain as well as the entire project life cycle.”
He maintained that the introduction of compliance monitoring and other corruption prevention tools (e-Procurement) rather than detection, as well as ensuring the development and use of regulatory governance controls and assurance frameworks, would guarantee the integrity of actions along the value chains and ensure increased shareholders or stakeholders value.
He stated that the objectives of strategic procurement could therefore be achieved not by one single discipline acting alone in a silo but by a multi discipline group working as a coherent team involving all the critical stakeholders to achieve overall business delivery objectives.
Egwim said that strategic procurement must pay attention to the character, personal integrity and antecedents of people hired into the procurement or supply chain organizations by synergizing with Human Resources (department) to conduct proper background checks on people before recruitment into the department.
In his presentation at the symposium, entitled ‘the Stars have aligned. Now is the moment,” Chief Executive Officer of CIPS, Ben Farrell, MBE, stated clearly that “strategy sets direction while narrative shapes belief, which drives execution,” and pointed out that “when the narrative is not aligned and the team hears one thing, feels another, and believes something else, execution doe not just slow down, it fractures.”
Farrell significantly warned against misaligned communication in procurement process. According to him, “misaligned communication breeds doubt, confusion, and disagreement; and in moments of pressure, people don’t fall back on talking points; they fall back on the last thing that felt right to them.”
He said that procurement discipline was growing steadily, disclosing that 13 million people were now in procurement and supply globally and that the turf was growing annually.
In his welcome address, the Northern Coordinator of CIPS, Nigerian Branch, Ambassador Daniel Etameta, said that strategic procurement must be the lens through which “we respond—by building adaptable, ethical, and data-driven supply systems that support resilience and sustainability.”
According to him,“Here in Nigeria, we are undergoing a reform-driven transition. We are seeing a recalibration of our monetary and fiscal policies. We are facing deep challenges—yes—but also immense opportunity. To rebuild trust, enhance transparency, innovate within our constraints, and ensure every naira and every dollar drives real impact.
“And so, today’s gathering matters. These constraints are not barriers; they are catalysts. They should compel us to think creatively, act decisively, and build systems that are resilient by design.”
Etameta took the opportunity of the symposium to extend the CIPS’s appreciation to Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, whose visionary leadership, he said, “continues to elevate the strategic relevance of procurement and supply in Nigeria’s development agenda.
“We equally acknowledge the invaluable contributions of our colleagues in the BPP, other ministries and government agencies, private sector leaders, non-governmental organizations, and institutional partners for making today’s event a success.
“Now colleagues, let me be clear: Procurement is no longer a back-office function. It is the engine of service delivery, the guardian of institutional trust and the architect of operational resilience.”
