Times Of Swaziland: NAMBOARD’S TRAILERS OPPORTUNITY FOR ENTREPRENEURS

NAMBOARD’S TRAILERS OPPORTUNITY FOR ENTREPRENEURS
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BY ASHMOND NZIMA on 22/02/2021 21:46:00


MBABANE - Local entrepreneurs are provided with an opportunity to design and
develop special trailers on behalf of NAMBoard.
NAMBoard is the National Agricultural Marketing Board and it has a mandate to
develop sustainable farming business among smallholder and commercial farmers in
the country as well as to provide a well governed import, export and
transitioning system of agricultural produce, among other tasks.
Following the advent of the COVID 19 pandemic and the border restrictions that
are presently enforced, the Eswatini Government has made a directive to
aggressively pursue an agenda of self-sustenance in the country.
marketing
In fulfilling the directive, NAMBoard is pursuing an agenda of growing the
production and supply of fresh produce by embarking on numerous interventions
from seedling availability, increased cropping programmes, and robust marketing
of produce.
Critical initiatives in the production of seedlings are said to have received
concentrated attention, such that over eight nurseries have been capacitated to
grow over 40 million seedlings per annum.
“As the produce supply reaches maximum seams following that farmers enrolled
for production of fresh produce has quadrupled, there is a compelling need to
develop and support a mechanised trailer system for swift collection of produce
from small scale farmers and to ensure prompt distribution to inner city areas,
retail shops, and hospitality areas,” explained NAMBoard in anexpression of
interest document.
NAMBoard seeks to provide empowerment by extending a request for expression of
interest from local entrepreneurs to design and develop the special trailers.
For a start, NAMBoard seeks to commission the design and construction of six
demo trailers for its operations.
empowering
“We also seek to use the equipment in training and empowering farmers so that
they can be able to grow their supply logistics to meet market demands,”
announced NAMBoard.
To stand a chance of making the cut, and entrepreneur must have at least three
years prior experience in the design and construction of trailers or heavy-duty
equipment.
The bidder must further demonstrate sufficient knowledge on the costing and
assembly of heavy-duty equipment.
“The entrepreneur must have sufficient knowledge on the components and
specifications of heavy-duty equipment and should demonstrate a track record in
successfully supplying heavy duty equipment,” read the requirements in part.
The construction of the modern trailers should be guided by certain
specifications.
They include having enough bracing/frames to secure pallets; and allowing easy
handling at collection and delivery destinations. They must have a load capacity
of up to 2 000kg.
The trailer should be a cleanly defined transport model that will guarantee the
freshness of the goods; must be easy to pull using a van; and it should have a
reliable excel load support,” stressed NAMBoard.
Entrepreneurs will be selected in accordance with the procurement procedures set
out by the Eswatini Public Procurement and Regulatory Authority (ESPPRA).
Expressions of interest written in English must be delivered not later than next
Tuesday at 4:30pm.
Clarifications may be requested in writing (email or by fax) not later than 10
days before the submission of expression of interest.
The contacts for requesting clarifications are (Fax: +268 2505 4072) or email
procurement@namboard.co.sz.