BREAKING NEWS, Oil & Gas
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The 8th National Assembly is to start the debate on the Petroleum Industry Bill by laying the bill in both the Senate and House of Representatives next week, according to Bukola Saraki, Senate president
THE 8th National Assembly will start debate of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, by laying it in the Senate and House of Representatives as a demonstration of the synergy existing between both chambers next week.
Bukola Saraki, Senate president, at the Business Environment Roundtable on the economy hosted by the National Assembly in Abuja, said the action was necessary to gain speed in the consideration and passage of the PIB and to prevent dissipation of time, energy and scarce resources that was prevalent in the past.
According to him, “We have said that the present National Assembly would not be business as usual. More importantly is the presence of the Honourable Speaker represented by the Chief Whip of the House at this event. The message from this is that the National Assembly – both Senate and House of Representatives, is working very closely together in the 8th National Assembly and as such some of these processes would not be bogged down in any of the chambers.
“We are both committed. We have both come out with our agenda and as part of this commitment, you will all see next week, when we lay the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill. You will see that the Bill we are going to lay in the House is the same Bill we are going to lay in the Senate because for the first time, we are committed to work together as one to achieve results.”
Explaining the reason for the roundtable on economy, Saraki noted that President Muhammadu Buhari has laid down the vision for a diversified economy away from too much dependence on the volatile oil, to ensure security of our people’s lives, block revenue leakages, create employment for the people, expand people’s economic opportunities and close the gap on our infrastructure deficit.
“The National Assembly has in tandem made these the vision, the anchor-point of its legislative agenda but we know that being a mere agenda is not enough, that no mantra or talk can make this happen without commensurate purposeful action,” he said
He lamented that the nation’s business environment is running largely on obsolete laws, weak governance framework, fragmented regulatory structures bogged down by inhibiting practices with very weak accountability mechanisms.
He said that the research that led to the business environment report was necessitated by the desire to create a new architecture for businesses to thrive in Nigeria.
Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, represented Doguwa, commended the initiative of the roundtable “which could not have come at a better time than now because we need the support of the private sector to turn around our economic fortunes.”
Aisha Abubakar, minister of state for trade and investment, in her goodwill message said the roundtable was a clear demonstration of the synergy that exists between the National Assembly and the executive aimed at improving the nation’s business environment in order to grow the economy.
Also, Professor Paul Idornigie, a commercial law expert, said the 8th National Assembly must pass 15 identified critical bills that would greatly enhance the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
Kyari Bukar, chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, stated that the report is an embodiment of a canvassed shift for government to create a competitive business environment.
Tony Elumelu, President of Heirs Group and Chairman of United Bank for Africa, UBA,said the roundtable initiated by the National Assembly further demonstrated that the nation’s laws are not perfect and that they needed to be reviewed to bring them up to speed and to enhance doing business and investment in the country.
– Mar. 22, 2016 @ 10:15 GMT |
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