Niger’s competitive dialogue, three years on: frustration grows and the reform’s future hangs in the balance

When Niger’s government unveiled Decree No. 2022-743/PRN/PM on September 29, 2022, it was presented as a turning point for public procurement. The new competitive dialogue procedure promised to bring order to public spending, strengthen transparency, and give the state access to the technical expertise needed for major development projects. Three years later, the mood surrounding that reform has soured. What was sold as a leap forward is now widely seen as a public relations exercise that has delivered little for Niger’s economy, and the debate over what comes next is intensifying.

A promising mechanism that never made it off the page

The logic behind competitive dialogue was appealing: let public buyers sit down with several shortlisted bidders and jointly design the most suitable technical, legal, or financial solutions. In the day-to-day work of Nigerien administrations, however, that provision has remained little more than an aspiration.

• Weak technical ownership: without proper training or clear methodological guides for procurement staff, the mechanism is considered too complex and cumbersome to handle.
• A retreat into habit: contracting authorities keep favoring traditional methods or, more troublingly, lean on derogatory procedures that do not deliver the added value promised by the 2022 text.
• No flagship project delivered: in three years, the major infrastructure contracts meant to benefit from this competitive flexibility have produced no visible spillovers or measurable efficiency gains for the public treasury.

Between the rhetoric of overhaul and the reality of direct deals

Even as officials speak constantly of an “overhaul” and stricter management, the continued use of direct awards and negotiated contracts contradicts the intentions set out in the 2022 decree. Instead of fostering healthy competition and transparency, the revamped legal framework often serves as an administrative showcase to reassure observers, while conditions on the ground remain marked by opacity and a lack of accountability.

Local businesses, which were supposed to be the first to benefit from a more open exchange with the state, keep complaining about limited access to major opportunities and slow procedures. That gap between promise and practice has become a central point of frustration in public debate.

The scorecard of a legal framework that does not work

After three years of theoretical application, the record of the September 29, 2022 decree exposes the distance between legislative inflation and operational reality:

• No impact on cost reduction: the financial optimization expected from stronger competition has not shown up in public accounts.
• Transparency in name only: audits and evaluation reports on the actual use of competitive dialogue are virtually nonexistent.
• A drag on investment: the gap between the texts on paper and their real-world application feeds uncertainty for serious economic partners.

Decree No. 2022-743 has amounted to a legal veneer with no knock-on effect. Tested by time, the introduction of competitive dialogue looks more like a communications maneuver than a genuine lever for transforming public procurement in Niger. As frustration mounts among businesses and observers, the question now is whether the authorities will correct course or let the reform quietly fade.

By Aïssata Issa — Analyst