Expression of Interest (EOI) for the Delivery of a Turnkey Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) for River Niger along Mokwa, Niger State, Nigeria

New clarification added: Question 8Please could you let us know along with Joint Ventures and Consortium subconsultancy is also allowed. Kindly confirm.Answer 8Yes, subconsultancy arrangements are permitted. However, the primary bidder (or Lead Partner in the case of a Joint Venture/Consortium) shall retain full contractual responsibility and accountability for delivery, quality, performance, warranty obligations, and coordination of all subcontracted activities. Bidders shall clearly identify any proposed subcontractors/subconsultants, including their roles and scope of services, within their submission. UNOPS wishes to emphasize that this procurement is intended to deliver a practical, scalable, and sustainable Flood Early Warning System suitable for the operational realities of the project environment and the available budget. Bidders are therefore encouraged to prioritize robustness, simplicity of maintenance, local capacity transfer, and long-term operational sustainability in their proposed solutions.Bidders shall confirm that the proposed Lead Partner meets the minimum eligibility criteria defined in the EOI independently, without reliance on subconsultant qualifications to meet minimum thresholds. Subconsultant experience may be presented as supplementary but shall not substitute for Lead Partner minimum requirements.UNOPS strongly encourages meaningful participation and capacity transfer to local technical partners where feasible.

New clarification added: Question 7Will DEM/topographic datasets be provided?Are existing hydraulic models available?Are satellite datasets sufficient?What flood map resolution is expected?Answer 7Existing datasets available to the Client may be shared where accessible; however, bidders should not assume availability or completeness of local datasets. Bidders are expected to identify and propose suitable datasets required for implementation. Use of publicly available satellite datasets is acceptable within the BASE system scope. Bidders shall propose appropriate flood mapping resolution consistent with the project objectives, technical approach, and available budget.Where satellite-derived datasets are used, bidders should describe proposed validation approaches and acknowledge associated uncertainties.

New clarification added: Question 6Is satellite mandatory for:1 station?2 stations?all stations as backup?Which satellite technologies are acceptable?Answer 6As specified in the ToR, satellite backup is mandatory for at least one station under the BASE system. Additional redundancy solutions may be proposed as optional enhancements. Bidders may propose any reliable and commercially proven satellite technologies suitable for the operational environment, provided they are cost-effective and sustainable.Bidders shall also indicate whether available discharge records from NIHSA gauging stations at Mokwa and upstream sites will be used for model calibration, and shall specify the minimum calibration period required.

New clarification added: Question 5Are subscription/SaaS licensing models acceptable?Is perpetual licensing preferred?Should licenses be named or concurrent?Are external map services allowed?Answer 5Subscription/SaaS licensing models are acceptable. Bidders shall clearly present all licensing assumptions and provide disaggregated annual licensing costs. UNOPS encourages solutions that minimize long-term licensing dependency and operational costs. Both named and concurrent licensing models may be proposed. External map services may be used provided that licensing terms, sustainability considerations, and any recurring costs are clearly disclosed.For the purposes of this procurement, the mandatory satellite-backed station shall be the primary reference gauge at Mokwa town, given its centrality to the flood warning dissemination function. Priority should be given to communication redundancy solutions capable of maintaining minimum operational continuity during severe flood events and telecom outages.

New clarification added: Question 4What minimum forecasting capability is expected in the BASE system?Is threshold-based alerting sufficient?Answer 4The BASE system is expected to provide basic flood monitoring and threshold-based early warning functionality, including real-time monitoring, visualization, and configurable alerts. Threshold-based alerting is considered acceptable within the BASE system requirements. Advanced predictive forecasting models beyond this may be proposed as optional enhancements.Given the hydrological characteristics of the Niger River at Mokwa — a large regulated river with upstream reservoir influences (Kainji and Jebba dams located around 100 km and 60km upstream respectively, the BASE system shall include, as a minimum, the ability to ingest and display real-time water level data from the two upstream gauging stations (Kainji and Jebba discharge releases) to enable advance warning based on travel time hydraulics. The estimated flood wave travel time from Jebba Dam to Mokwa is approximately 12–24 hours depending on discharge magnitude, which is a critical operational parameter for effective early warning. Bidders shall therefore demonstrate how their proposed monitoring network accounts for upstream influence and provides adequate lead time for community warning dissemination.The alert system should ideally support configurable multi-threshold alert levels (e.g., advisory, warning, critical) to improve operational response

New clarification added: Question 3What is the existing flood management system?Which interfaces/APIs exist?Is integration mandatory or optional?What data exchange formats are required?Is historical data migratioin expected?Answer 3At present, no operational FEWS platform exists for Mokwa. Alignment and interoperability with any future flood management systems is strongly encouraged under the BASE system. Bidders are encouraged to adopt open architecture and standard interoperable formats/APIs where feasible. Historical data migration is not currently a mandatory requirement under this procurement.While no FEWS platform currently exists for the Mokwa area specifically, bidders are encouraged to note the existence of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) national monitoring network and the NIMET (Nigerian Meteorological Agency) Early Warning Platform. Where technically feasible, proposed solutions should adopt data formats and communication protocols compatible with these national systems (e.g., WMO-compliant WISKI/HYDSTRA formats, standard CSV/JSON time-series exports, or OGC-WFS/WMS APIs for spatial data). Integration at BASE system level not mandatory, but proposals demonstrating future-proofing interoperability will be technically advantageous

New clarification added: Question 2Is cloud hosting acceptable? If yes:public cloud?Nigeria-hosted cloud mandatory?Azure/AWS acceptable?If on-premise:who provides hardware?server room?power backup?firewall/VPN?Is internet connectivity guaranteed at the hosting site?Are there government cybersecurity requirements?Answer 2Cloud hosting is acceptable. Nigeria-hosted cloud solutions are preferred where feasible but are not mandatory. Public cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS are acceptable, subject to compliance with applicable data security and ownership requirements. Bidders may also propose hybrid approaches. If on-premise solutions are proposed, bidders shall clearly specify all hardware, infrastructure, connectivity, cybersecurity, backup, and maintenance requirements. At this stage, UNOPS cannot guarantee dedicated government server infrastructure or internet redundancy. Bidders are therefore encouraged to propose practical and resilient hosting arrangements.Bidders are advised to comply with Nigeria's National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) data protection guidelines and Cybercrimes Act 2015 provisions applicable to critical infrastructure data. Data ownership clauses ensuring all hydrological and flood data generated under this contract remains the exclusive property of the ClientBidders shall clearly describe disaster recovery arrangements, backup frequency, data redundancy, cybersecurity measures, and system uptime assumptions

New clarification added: Question 1Is there an indicative budget range for the BASE system?Is UNOPS expecting a phased implementation if budget becomes limiting?Are bidders expected to optimize toward lowest cost or best technical value?Answer 1At this stage of the process, the intention is to gather information on existing market capacity and does not involve financial proposals.Further technical details will be provided at the solicitation stage. Bidders are therefore encouraged to prioritize robustness, simplicity of maintenance, local capacity transfer, and long-term operational sustainability in their proposed solutions.The project as currently designed is to be delivered in an operational mode. However, the implementation is to allow for possible future expansion.