News Editor
World Bank have blacklisted Asbeco Nigeria Limited of No. 10 Effanga Mkpa Street, State Housing Estate, Calabar, Cross River State, and Maxicare Company Nigeria Limited of Millennium Builders Plaza, Suite 204, Block C, Plot 251, Herbert Macaulay Way, Central Business District, Abuja.
These two contracting firms have been captured in its 2021 listing of ineligible firms and individuals barred from getting involved or benefiting from any of its contracts, or those of its affiliate institutions.
The two companies are among 43 individual and corporate contracting firms and consultancies either indicted directly by the World Bank or indirectly by its affiliate financial institutions for various infractions bordering mainly on fraud and contract graft.
Going forward, all the affected individuals and companies are to remain ineligible for any contract award by the bank and its affiliates between 2021 and 2026.
The bank said in an updated publication that the companies were blacklisted after its Group Sanctions Board indicted them of various “fraudulent and collusive practices” considered gross infractions to established regulations and breaches of its contract and consultancy procedures.
The blacklisting would render Asbeco ineligible to be awarded any World Bank-financed contracts or consultancy services by any of the affiliated multilateral development banks (MDBs) between May 25, 2021, and May 24, 2026, and Maxicare, between May 19, 2021, and February 22, 2024.
Meanwhile, Anambra State government has said that about 60,000 people in the state would benefit from the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme expected to commence soon in the state.
The programme, designed by the Federal Government and the World Bank, was put together to help cushion the harsh impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
Commissioner for Economic Planning, Budget and Development Partners, Mr Mark Okoye, disclosed this shortly after receiving an assessment and advisory team led by Dr Martina Nwodu, a director in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Okoye said: “You may all be aware that during the pandemic, 8 to 10 million people have been put into abject poverty. There has been increasing unemployment.”
