Start by fixing the scope, not the price
If three contractors price three different interpretations of your brief, the cheapest bid is simply the one that assumed the least. Before you invite pricing, write down the scope in enough detail that a bidder cannot quietly leave something out: the areas covered, the specification level, what the base building already provides, and what your own IT, security and furniture teams will supply.
Ask every bidder to return a priced breakdown against your structure rather than their own. Comparability is worth more than presentation.
Ask for assumptions and exclusions in writing
The most informative page in any fit-out proposal is the exclusions list. A short exclusions list usually means the bidder has not examined the building. A specific one, naming base-build power capacity, ceiling voids, landlord approvals, working-hours restrictions, means somebody visited the site and thought about it.
- What has been assumed about base-build services?
- What is excluded, and who is expected to cover it?
- Which items are provisional, and what would fix them?
- What access and working hours have been priced?
Test the delivery approach, not the portfolio
Photographs show the finished condition of a project, not how it got there. Ask how the partner sequences trades, who is on site daily, how quality is checked at each stage, and how a change is raised, priced and approved. Ask to see the format of their progress report, not a sample project, the actual template.
A partner who can describe their reporting cadence and change process without hesitation has done it before.
Check the interface with your landlord and consultants
In most Nigerian commercial buildings, the landlord's requirements shape a meaningful part of the programme: approval of drawings, permitted working hours, service shutdowns, protection of common areas. Ask each bidder how they intend to manage that interface and who will own it.
Look at how they handle what they do not know
Every project has unknowns at tender stage. The useful signal is not confidence, it is whether the partner names the unknowns and proposes a way to resolve them before they become site variations. A bidder who tells you what they cannot yet price is more reliable than one who prices everything.
A short evaluation structure
If you need a simple framework for scoring, these five headings cover most of what actually matters.
- Scope comprehension: did they price what you asked for?
- Assumptions and exclusions: specific and building-aware?
- Delivery method: sequencing, supervision, quality checks
- Commercial control: change process, reporting, cost visibility
- Handover: what documentation is issued at completion?
If you are preparing a project of this kind, send us the outline and we will respond with a view on scope and sequence.