Strengthening Capability Beyond Compliance in Public Procurement and Supply Chain Systems in West Africa

Public procurement, logistics, and supply chain systems collectively determine the operational capacity of the state: the capacity to deliver infrastructure, health services, humanitarian aid, and development outcomes. Across West Africa, as in many developing regions, reform efforts remain procedural rather than systemic, emphasising regulatory compliance, digitisation, and formal process alignment without addressing deeper institutional and operational constraints.

This policy brief argues that the central failure is not a deficit of reform activity but a failure to internalise and operationalise the global frontier of procurement and supply chain governance. Governments, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal (examined here as comparative cases), have adopted the language of transparency, digital procurement, and sustainability, but have not embedded these principles into integrated, lifecycle-based, data-driven, and resilient systems.

The consequence is partial reform: improvements at one stage of the procurement lifecycle are undermined by structural weaknesses elsewhere, yielding persistent inefficiencies, elevated corruption risks, supplier exclusion, and fragile supply chains. This brief diagnoses the core governance gaps, presents a comparative West African analysis, and advances seven evidence-based policy recommendations for governments, development partners, and multilateral organisations.