Abstract:
Making public procurement a tool for encouraging special groups’ participation is an interesting agenda from developmental and economic perspectives. The initiative provides a ground for the groups to excel socio-economically. This is after realising there is inadequate participation of special groups in up-taking public procurement opportunities. This study documents the influence of awareness creation on the involvement of special groups in harnessing opportunities in public procurement. A cross-sectional research design was adopted while a sample of 224 respondents was selected using stratified and proportional random sampling techniques. Data was collected through a survey questionnaire and key informant interviews, while descriptive statistics and multiple regression models were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that training of special groups (p=0.015), availability of mentorship forums (p=0.000), and dissemination of information about preference schemes given to special groups (p=0.000) had a significant influence on special groups’ participation in procurement opportunities. The study concludes that awareness creation, mentoring and training had a significant relationship with special groups’ participation in public procurement opportunities. The study recommends that the Local Government Authorities should put more initiatives into creating awareness and enforcing the applicability of preference schemes to the special groups towards harnessing public procurement opportunities.
