Recently,I attended a business interactive forum where suppliers and buyers cross exchanged ideas on how to do effective business.This I want to share with readers here.

The Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) one of the biggest player in the global gas industry and foremost gas company in Nigeria recently organized a two day forum for its vendors in Port Harcourt to re-assess the 2007 year as well as formulate guidelines for the 2008 fiscal year.

The forum which segemented the vendors into two categories took place on sixteenth and seventeenth of July,2008 at the Protea Hotel,GRA,Port Harcourt.

This year's theme ‘Achieving sustainable business performance' was derived from the impressive vendors' performance in 2007.

The focus of the 2008 forum was for stock taking on the 2007 performance and to explain new requirements for vendors in discharging their function within 2008.

Mr. Peter Adeniyi of the Vendor Review unit said each vendor's performance is measured by the delivery time, succesful bids received and the quality of deliveries in relationship to purchase order and specifications.

He said while ignorance and non-comprehension of purchase orders, poor estimation,poor communication and unrealistic lead times could impede performance,business specialization and know-how,strict adherence to enquiry and purchase order terms would improve performance.

Mr. Chris Afuberoh and Kayade Fatokun of the Procurement unit said vendors are expected to provide information on the manufacture,specify where the order was issued and where to deliver goods.

They said it was wrong to ask NLNG to collect materials from differents locations because this leads to problems in stock taking.

According to them,the challenges posed by the renewal of duty free exemption certificates , would compel NLNG to operate a complex arrangement of EX-WORK together with Delivery Duty Paid[DDP].

They said the company has resolved to achieve minimal cost in its operations but would not compromise quality and urged vendors to avoid using sources that lack creditability.

The Logistics Coordinator for NLNG Mr. Sola Olafimihan said the company desires that vendors pay particular attention to the quality of materials, personnel, resources and information they provide.

He said about half a billion naira has been lost to transportation of materials because of the lack of proper packaging.

Mr. Olafimihan also said the company would only pay for goods that are supplied in good condition.

Miss Mina Johnson-Hart of the Contracting Unit urged vendors to develop expertise in their business,evolve adequate planning procedures to enable them meet with the challenges of competition.

She told them to have a workable address and phone numbers as well as identifiable offices for easy contact.Vendors were also urged to patiently calculate their units and measures correctly to avoid discrepancies that could delay response to queries and approval of contracts.

While Mr. Augustine Ajagwu provided an outline on NLNG contractor Health ,Safety and Environment Evaluation requirement,Mr Chris Ede said the reason for delays in payment for executed jobs are due to severe factors such as non provision of original copies of contractual agreements,incorrect ddates on bills,discrepancies on invoice and non endorsement by appropriate officers.

He said most invoice are quoted in dollars when actual work was done in

Nigeria and said that this could also delay payment.

The Head, Business Strategy and Support Mr. Sunday Unah who said the forum would improve suppliers' business capacity, urged vendors to adhere to the information that has been made available to them.

According to him,each vendor is awarded contract based on qualification,capacity,technical expertise and fund.

A cross section of the vendors expressed concern at the new posture of NLNG on demanding that some goods be sourced from a particular manufacturer and the DDP requirement.They however, commended NLNG for organising the forum.

Later in an interview,the Head Business Strategy and support Mr.

Sunday Unah described this years session as an improvement on the previous sessions of 2006 and 2007.