The raison d’etre of any government is the pursuit of the happiness of its citizenry. This way, the government adds value to the quality of life of its people in all strata of society. One of the ways of doing this is via standardization. In recent times, interest in the fields of procurement, environmental management and social safeguards have increased. This has necessitated the need for concomitant capacity building in minimum benchmarks to decrease the negative consequences linked to the absence of standards in the tripartite areas of procurement, environment and social safeguards. In Procurement, standardization of procedures is a crucial element in maintaining transparency, accountability, impartiality and fairness. It helps to prevent corruption issues, such as suppliers bribing those in charge of the procurement process, the fixing of bid prices (commonly called quotation) or the awarding of contracts to one supplier without competitive bidding, among others. The existence of standards helps ensure that supplies are procured only from ethical sources with good track records. The Nigerian government just like in other countries is the major provider of services or public goods to society. Even though endowed with human and natural resources, corruption-linked procurement processes have been reported to contribute to poor service delivery systems and compromise, youth unemployment and a cascade of other socio-economic ills which have taken a toll on the nation. The Human Development Index (HDI) of the country comparatively ranks low, while the HPI (Happy Planet Index) ranks very high paradoxically – Nigerians are happy people!
Furthermore, despite universal Environmental consciousness in recent decades, the Nigerian ecosystem is being degraded by anthropogenous activities such as agriculture, fisheries, transport, industry, tourism and the urban sprawl. Global pressures on the environment have resulted to climate change and variability, in addition to economic and population growth, and changing consumption patterns. At the same time, growing understanding of the characteristics of Nigeria’s environmental challenges and their impact on economic and Social systems in a globalized world has brought with it the increasing recognition that existing knowledge and governance approaches are inadequate to deal with them. With no formal curricula specified for standards development in these key areas, the gap between sustainable policy and implementation keeps widening.
In response to this, the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi (FUAM) through funding from the World Bank has established the Center for Innovation in Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards (CIPESS) under the Sustainable Procurement Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) Project to develop competences in the three core areas offered under five distinct academic tracks in the first instance of 5 years. CIPESS will leverage to a great extent on ICT and collaborations with international and national partners to train her students in the following tracks: Track A: Short executive certificate courses for existing workforce in PESS. Track B: Advanced Certificate Courses for school leavers and others in PESS. Track C: Post-graduate Diploma (PGD) in PESS. Track D: Master’s degree (Professional and Academic Masters) – and later, PhD programmes – for degree holders to focus on in-depth research in PESS. Track E: 4-year Bachelors programme in PESS. In simple terms, the time has come, in Nigeria, that any one desiring to hold public office in any capacity – be it in academia, the public sector, in industry or the organized private sector – might need to present some kind of certification in an area in the field of Procurement Standards, Environmental Standards or Social Standards, depending on their area of specialization. Movement from your current position or rank to the next level in your career might soon be hindered without this training. CIPESS is the hub for this in North Central Nigeria for all civil servants at State and Federal levels. State and Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the organized private sector, non-governmental organizations, civil society, industries, academia and the general public are the focus of these programmes. Using experienced personnel from the composite departments in the University and drawing on the rich pool of partners, CIPESS shall focus on offering world-class in-person and on-line pedagogic content and hybrid learning systems with opportunity for industry-based internship and exchange programs with sectoral and academic partners within and outside Nigeria. CIPESS will translate research milestones and teaching into improving the process of procurement in the private as well as public sector, enhancement of legal framework and backstopping environmental and social safeguards.
On behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Anande Kimbir (KSM), I urge you to grab the opportunity to study with us in the culture of World Bank excellence and global best practice. Welcome to CIPESS!

Signed
Professor Lami A. Nnamonu FICCON, FCSN
(Project Leader & Centre Director)