CA Invites Youth, Women, and PWDs to Tender Training Session — But Will It Move the Needle?

The Communications Authority of Kenya of Kenya will be running a free online Q&A on April 7 with the aim of educating young people, women and people with disabilities about the process of bidding for government tenders.

This particular session will start at 10am and will run through to midday, with a focus on how to navigate the increasingly digital world of government procurement here in Kenya.

On the surface, an event like this looks like just another awareness initiative. But from what we gathered so far from the details provided, it's actually one of those initiatives that will benefit attendees. 

The Bigger Picture : AGPO Still Very Much in the Mix

The online training is all part of the framework set up by Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) - a policy that the government introduced back in 2013, and which aims to ensure that at least 30% of all public procurement money ends up with businesses owned by:

• Young people

• Women

• People with disabilities

In theory, AGPO is one of the more forward-thinking procurement policies in the region, designed to bring about a more level playing field and open up business opportunities for groups that have historically been excluded from the big ticket purchases made by government. In practice, however, the results have been patchy.

The Persistent Gaps: Awareness, Access, & Trust

And yet more than a decade later, the same issues still do exist.

1. Low Awareness - A Longstanding Issue

Many businesses that could benefit from government tenders are still in the dark on various details such as:

• How to register on the system

• How to find the tenders that are available

• How to actually submit a bid

And while the training is specifically aimed at closing that gap, it also raises an important question : what's behind this lack of awareness in the first place?

2. Digital Complexity - More Like A Barrier Than A Help

Kenya has been moving steadily towards an e-procurement system. And on paper, this should make it easier for businesses to get involved. But in reality, its introduced a whole new set of problems:

• Crappy user interfaces

• Technical requirements that are tough to meet

• Limited support for people who need it

For small businesses, especially those in the smaller towns and rural areas, this shift has felt less like progress and more like just another barrier to overcome.

3. Payment Delays - The Elephant in the Room

Even when businesses do manage to win a tender, the problem of delayed payments continues to be a major headache. And for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate on tight cash flow, this can be a disaster - forcing them to either go without, or borrow more money to keep the lights on and the staff employed.

And no amount of training is going to sort out a payment system that is fundamentally broken.

4. Procurement Integrity - When Does Trust Start To Erode?

And then there are the concerns around transparency and fairness - issues that have been dogging AGPO since day one. Loads of small businesses remain deeply skeptical about the way that tenders are evaluated, how award decisions are made, and how much information is actually available.

And once trust has been eroded, its a pretty tough sell to try and win it them back through a workshop or training session.

Why the CA's Focus on E-Procurement Matters

The CA's emphasis on electronic procurement systems is a pretty telling indicator of where things stand.

If all this digital kit was user-friendly, accessible and generally easy to get to grips with, then I'd be inclined to say that training sessions like this wouldnt be necessary.

The fact that they are still required suggests that system and user experience arent quite in sync.

What This Session Can and Can't Do

So what can an event like this do for the businesses that manages to attend? It can hopefully demystify the bidding process, provide some guidance on compliance, and maybe even encourage a few first-time applicants to take the plunge.

It cant guarantee that the evaluation process will be fair, or that payment delays will get sorted out, or that the whole system will get simplified for the benefit of all involved.

Those sorts of changes need to come from a much higher level - and need to be systemic.

The Real Test : Whats Going to Happen After the Training

So what would the impact of this training actually be?

Key questions remain unanswered :

• Is the government consistently meeting its 30% AGPO target?

• Is the process allowing suppliers to get paid within a reasonable timeframe?

• and a host of other stuff that needs to get sorted out to stop small businesses getting jammed up by the system.