Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
FCDA Secretariat
Area 11, Garki Abuja
Establishment of Commodity Market and Trade Corporations for Nigeria
Request for Expression of Interest International Competitive bidding
The Federal Government of Nigeria is currently engaged on a transformation of its agricultural sector, with sharp focus on agribusiness development, commercialization of agriculture, to drive food security, promote growth and jobs creation. At the core of this strategy is the decision of the government to drive agriculture as more of business than being considered as a way of life for social development, and move away from treating agriculture as a development program.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has developed a comprehensive Agricultural Transformation Agenda which focuses on improving agricultural value chains in several commodities, including rice, maize, soybeans, cassava, sorghum, cocoa, palm oil, livestock and aquaculture.
The dissolution of the old marketing boards, as part of the Structural Adjustment Programs of the 1980s, has left the country without marketing institutions to coordinate the marketing system for Agricultural commodities. As a result, markets are poorly organized with high transaction costs, lack of price discovery mechanism, price volatility and difficulty in enforcing grades and standards, making domestic markets inefficient and unable to assure stable prices for farmers and consumers.
As part of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development wish to develop Commodity Market and Trade Corporations that will be at par with International best practice that will coordinate the agricultural value chains to enhance market efficiency and competiveness. The scope of the consultancy shall include the Establishment of Commodity Market and Trade Corporations in respect of the following:
| Lot No | Commodity Market | Nature |
| 1 | Cocoa Market and Trade Corporation | Consultancy |
| 2 | Grains Market and Trade Corporation | “ |
| 3 | Cotton Market and Trade Corporation | “ |
| 4 | Roots and Tubers Market and Trade Corporation | “ |
| 5 | Horticulture Market and Trade Corporation | “ |
| 6 | Livestock and Dairy Market and Trade Corporation | “ |
| 7 | Fisheries and Aquaculture Market and Trade Corporation |
Terms of Reference (Applicable to all Commodity Markets)
1. Critically review the experiences with the old marketing boards and lessons for Nigeria on improving marketing of Agricultural products.
2. Critically review the current state of Agricultural Marketing in Nigeria and identify the gaps that must be fixed to improve marketing of agricultural produce and recommend measures to fix them.
3. Review international best practices in market development and institutional arrangements for improving marketing of agricultural produce in emerging economics e.g. China, Brazil, India, Thailand) and other African countries (e.g., Ghana, Kenya, South Africa etc.) and draw lessons for Nigeria agricultural market development
4. Develop the framework for the Commodity Market and Trade Corporation, based on the international best practices in market development
5. Recommend suitable legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks to ensure oversight, proper regulation, transparency and accountability of the market and trade corporations to stakeholders
6. Strategic plan for the market and trade corporations, outlining the key choices to be made, the recommended choice, and how to execute such choices:
a. Concise scope and mission for the market and trade corporations
b. Integrated activity-based plan for the market and trade corporation will need to engage in, while ensuring that they public-private partnerships for successfully unlocking the capacity of the agricultural value chains
c. Determine the market development activities that the market and trade
corporations should engage in what should be done by the private sector,
d. Outline the partnerships the market and corporations need to build and
recommend steps to achieve such partnerships at local, regional and global levels
7. Develop a financial plan (P &L plus balance sheet) for the commodity Market and trade corporation’s activities over an initial period of 5years and how such can be achieved using combination of government, private and investor capital. The high level financials should include estimate of investment propositions for institutions including commodity buying and at what price, cost of running the corporation, uses of declared reserves, management price scheme etc.
8. Given considerations and roles outlined above, determine the key capabilities and skills required by the market a trade corporations and steps required to achieve them. The capability mapping should as appropriate include high level organizational design and job description as well as a plan of action for filling these.
Timeline: The Consultant will finalize the report by August 15,2012. The Corporations shall be formed and incorporated by September, 2012.
Functions of the Commodity Markets
- Coordinate the commodity value chains to ensure that farmers are able to secure profitable markets for their commodities, to raise farm incomes.
- Organize farmers into production clusters for each of the commodity value chains and link them to processors.
- Put in place institutional arrangements to expand the access of farmers in the value chain to agricultural extension services, improved production methods (seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, and mechanization) to rapidly raise productivity of farms.
- Establish a decentralized modern price discovery system to ensure the flow of reliable, quality and timely market information across the agricultural value chains, using mobile phones and other mass price transmission systems.
- Coordinate with Abuja Security and Exchange Commission and put in place a functional agricultural commodity exchange platform to improve marketing and pricing of agricultural produce.
- Establish, manage and promote private sector Investments in commodity processing and value addition through commercial ventures.
- Ensure price stabilization through a mix of public and private sector instruments including public intervention to mop up surpluses, strategic grain reserves link of farmers to off-takers, market hedging, and facilitation of export financing for farmers to export surpluses.
- Develop the needed market infrastructure (warehouses, silos, cold storage etc.) and transfer these to private sector under lease arrangements to reduce post -harvest and marketing losses and improve food safety.
- Put in place grade and standards for the commodities to facilitate trade
- Facilitate the establishment and functioning of Staple Crop Processing Zones
Qualification Criteria
3. In order to be considered, interested companies must submit Expression of Interest in line with the above terms of reference and functions of the Commodity Market, accompanied with the following:-
i. Evidence of registration with relevant professional body or certificate of competence and qualification by appropriate regulatory agency;
ii. Provide details of the company profile including the curriculum vitae of key
professional staff and other resources;
iii. Verifiable evidence of similar jobs done previously;
iv. Evidence of payment of due taxes, charges, pensions or social insurance
contributions;
v. Company Audited Accounts for the last 3 years; (2009,2010,2011);
Submission of Documents
The documents must be submitted in a sealed envelope marked with the Appropriate Project Title and Lot No at the top right hand corner and must be delivered to the address below on or before 25th June, 2012 by 12noon to:
The Secretary
Ministerial Tenders Board;
Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
2nd Floor, Room 213;
FCDA Secretariat, Area 11, Garki Abuja
Opening of Bids
All EOIs will be opened at 1p.m on same date at the Honourable Minister’s Conference Room, Ministry Headquarters, Area 11, Abuja after the close of submission in the presence of all the interested firms, who choose to attend.
Please Note
- Only shortlisted firms will be invited for further consideration.
- Late submission will be rejected.
- This advertisement will not be construed as a commitment on the part of FMA&RD to appoint any consultant nor shall it entitle any Consultant submitting documents to claim any indemnity from FMA&RD.
- FMA&RD reserves the right to take final decisions on any of the documents received in your proposals.
Interested applicants may obtain further information at the address above from 8a.m to 5p.m, Monday through Friday
Signed;
Dr Ezekiel O Oyemomi
Permanent Secretary
