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Tag: Senate

  • Senate to pass Petroleum Industry Bill in tranches – Saraki

    Senate to pass Petroleum Industry Bill in tranches – Saraki

    The President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, says Senate will pass the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) in tranches as a way out of its non-passage for the past eight years.

    Saraki made this known at a three- day Public Hearing on the PIGB organised by the Senate Joint Committee on the bill on Wednesday in Abuja.

    He said the passage of the bill in tranches was necessitated by the need to unbundle its contents into manageable compartments that could be implemented in phases.

    Saraki noted that the Senate was set to pass the first tranche of the bill, while putting measures in place for the passage of other tranches.

    He added that the passage of the first tranche would further tackle persistent problems associated with fiscal framework and host communities.

    “This public hearing is another avenue for us to hear from the operators, regulators, experts and other stakeholders in the industry on how to move the industry forward.

    “We want to move away from the way things were done in the past during the consideration of such bills, especially fiscal framework and host communities.

    “We will push for greater partnership so that the bill will be a win-win for everyone; one that works for government, attractive to oil companies and takes into consideration concerns of the host communities.

    “We will also tackle the issues of downstream, gas and environment. We are poised and resolved to deal with all issues related to the industry, albeit in tranches.

    “As a nation we cannot afford any further delay in our effort to reform our oil and gas industry.

    “The journey begins now and I assure you that we will guarantee that all of these bills are passed in record time,’’ he said.

    Saraki expressed concern that though the petroleum industry contributed over 90 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings, existing legal, regulatory and institutional structures in the industry were out-dated.

    He noted that the sector had performed below expectations, adding that the development had led to the Federal Government and investors losing significant edge in the oil and gas investment trends.

    According to him, it is unacceptable that till date, Nigeria still imports over 90 per cent of needed petroleum products, flares substantial gas produced, damages the eco-system and pollutes host communities.

    The senate president added that in spite of Nigeria’s might in the sector, it could not supply adequate electricity to individual homes and industries.

    “This situation has undermined our citizen’s standard of living, life expectancy, national energy security.

    “It has therefore resulted in other unforeseen fallouts like labour unrest, fuel queues, high cost of delivery of products and unquantifiable wastage of national productivity.

    “The oil and gas industry is yearning for good governance, competitiveness, transparency, indigenous participation and accountability,’’Saraki said.

    He assured that the bill would be passed in record time.

    The Chairman of the joint committee, Sen. Omotayo Alasoadura, said if Nigeria must get out of the present recession, the petroleum industry must be made efficient and more profit-oriented.

    He said it was therefore expedient to pass the bill to reposition the industry.

    Alasoadura said: “It is in this spirit that we are beginning today the journey of consultation with stakeholders in the match towards passing the bill.

    The public hearing ends on Friday.

  • Adeosun, Emefiele back Senate’s proposed scrapping of BoI

    …as BoI kicks

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele have thrown their weights behind calls in some quarters especially the National Assembly to scrap the Bank of Industry (BoI) to be replaced with a National Development Bank (NDB).

    However, in a swift reaction, the BoI kicked against the move. Speaking Monday at a public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions on the establishment of the NDB, the Acting Managing Director, BoI, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, said the Bol plays a distinct role which already encapsulated the role of the proposed NDB.

    A bill seeking to establish the NDB had passed second reading in the Senate on October 12.

    Titled: ‘A Bill for an Act to establish the National Development Bank, 2015’, and sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gobir, it seeks to repeal the BoI, the Bank for Commerce and Industry Act and the National Economic Reconstruction Fund Act.

    The bill further seeks to bring the total assets of the organisations under one body to be called the National Development Bank.

    Olagunju stated that what was needed was more funding of the bank by the Federal Government so as to increase its support to the real sector rather than duplicate functions with the establishment of another bank with a similar purpose.

    In his words: “We are of the opinion that the BoI, as presently constituted, is fulfilling the mandate envisaged in the proposed legislation by supporting genuine entrepreneurs. Therefore, it should be left to continue its operations as it is. The merger envisaged in the proposed bill has already taken place.

    “The BoI should be provided with more capital to be able to further support the real sector instead of duplicating functions by creating new development finance institutions, bearing in mind the failure of similar DFIs in the past, such as the NBCI, NERFUND, People’s Bank, Community Banks, etc.”

    He added, “We advise that the National Assembly should support industrialisation by enacting legislation that will help create an enabling environment for business to thrive, such as an amendment to the Land Use Act, tax incentives for SMEs and establishment of industrial parks.

    “This will substantially address the demand challenges of finance for SMEs in Nigeria, as vagaries of the business environment have been making the sector unattractive to private and public lenders.”

    However, Adeosun, who was represented by a director in Ministry of Finance, Christopher Gabriel, said the ministry strongly supported the bill, adding that the proposal was in tandem with the economic reconstruction efforts of the Federal Government.