130 MSMEs Benefit from Procurement Readiness Training

A total of 130 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) recently benefited from training to bolster their capacity to compete for public-sector contracts.

The four-part Public Procurement Readiness Project workshops were organised by the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, and facilitated by the Office of Public Procurement Policy (OPPP) within the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MOFPS), in conjunction with the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC).

Small Business Financing Specialist at the Industry Ministry, Karen Hylton, said that the workshops were important in building the capacity of MSMEs given the significant challenges often faced by these entities in accessing government contracts.

“It was crucial for us to drive this initiative and empower our MSMEs with the knowledge and tools needed to thrive in a competitive marketplace,” she said, while addressing the final workshop held recently at the JBDC’s Incubator and Resource Centre in Kingston.

“This workshop not only serves to train MSMEs in how to prepare bid documents but also to break down the Set-Aside Orders and the fundamentals of the public procurement process – what the intricacies are, what it means to MSMEs, the benefits and opportunities available, and what the requirements would be to meet the eligibility criteria,” she outlined.

Chief Public Procurement Policy Officer at the OPPP, Andrei Bennett, in noting the outcomes of the training sessions, said MSMEs must “walk away with a feeling of empowerment that the government contract market is accessible to them and that it can be an important component of their business growth”.

He said it is also important that the entities “have a clear understanding of what it takes to participate in the government contract space, understand government requirements, how to respond to the tender calls that are put out, how to make the most attractive bids possible, and to tell others [about the process]”.

Aside from the training support provided to MSMEs, the workshop series also facilitated on-site registration for the Government of Jamaica Electronic Procurement Portal (GOJEP), which is a Tender Management System, through which all government-based tender opportunities are being managed by GOJ’s public procurement professionals.