By Uzoma Nzeagwu
The General Manager/Chief Executive Officer, Bureau of Public Procurement, Anambra State, Arch Okechukwu Ezeobi has attributed what he termed massive successes in infrastructural development in the state to Governor Charles Soludo’s policy of competitive tendering and non interference in the office.
Arch Ezeobi stated this recently during an interaction with members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, who also presented him Award as man of the year 2025 to be held in August this year.
According to him, any contract job in the state is awarded through competitiveness and sound qualification of the bidder, insisting that, “Governor Soludo never interferes…, never called me and or influenced any contract award. This makes my job easy, and now 3 years on the job, this makes him the best person to work with”.
The BPP boss further disclosed that from their job output, “Anambra State won 2.5billion US dollars for being very best state, The World Bank referred Gabon to use Anambra template in their contract Awards. The parastatal has saved billions of Naira for the state. Any contract approved and awarded gives value to Anambra people. We do not give padded contract, we give value for money”.
“We have done more than that of three previous governors put together; completing over 500km of roads, bridges etc. Every single project is on-line and you can access and query it. We make competitive tendering”, Arch Ezeobi noted while admiring Prof. Soludo’s style of administration.
He however stated the fact that the major challenge is documentation where many companies or contract bidders do not have tax clearance, stressing that today, “his office has forced many companies to make their books clearer by submitting tax certificates. There is also joint monitoring of projects – which saves time and brings corruption to zero level. There is no room to negotiate with contractors.
“We consider the most responsive bidder. As I speak to you now, there is no abandoned contract, we pay contractors and all contractors are on site today”
Earlier, the NUJ Chairman, Anambra State Chapter, Odogwu Emeka Odogwu pointed out that Arch Ezeobi was selected as man of the year 2025 after thorough screening and considering his pedigree.
He congratulated Arch Ezeobi for accepting the award and hoped that the honour would improve his status, add more recognition to his life, office and family.
