Saraki advocates sale of govt shares in NLNG

Senate President, Bukola Saraki has called for the part sale of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), concession of major/regional airports and refineries as some of the solutions to get Nigeria out of economic recession.

This is even as he was upbeat that the country has the capacity to ‘make this the shortest recession’ in the nation’s history.

Saraki who rolled out the measures in his welcome speech to senators from their eight-week recess at resumption on Tuesday, said what Nigerians want from the Federal Government over the economic crisis is solutions and not to apportion blames.

Some of the urgent measures that should be adopted by the executive in addressing the problems, according to him, include raising capital from assets sales and other sources to shore up foreign reserves which got depleted from $65billion in 2007 to about $30billion in 2015.

He also called on the Federal Government to adopt the dialogue approach in solving the Niger Delta crisis, reduction of government share in upstream oil joint venture operations as well as sale of government stake in financial institutions like Africa Finance Corporation.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had attributed the economic crisis to activities of militants in the Niger Delta, which led to loss of over 1million barrels per day, thereby affecting the daily production target of 2.2million bpd in the 2016 budget.

Invitation of experts billed to brief senators on the way out of the crisis and commencement of debate by lawmakers earlier slated for Tuesday, was postponed due to suspension of plenary session in the upper chamber in honour of Adewale Elijah Oluwatayo, a member of the House of Representatives who died on July 21st this year.

Consequently, the Senate adjourned till Wednesday to continue with the matter.

According to Saraki: “It is clear to me that when people are desperately hungry, what they need is leadership with a clear vision; leadership whose daily actions reflect the very urgency of the people’s condition. Therefore, our response to the current challenge must be dictated by the urgency of the hardship that the people suffer on a daily basis.

“The Executive must immediately put in place leadership-level engagement platform with the private sector. This must be one that is pro-business and shows unequivocally that government is ready to partner with the private sector towards economic revival. This is a critical signpost towards market confidence which is a key ingredient to help us revamp the economy out of recession.

“The Executive must consider tweaking the pension funds policy within international best practice safeguards to accommodate investment in infrastructure and mortgages”.

Already, the Federal Government has commenced the process of concessioning the Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano international airports in the first phase of its concession programme, with a committee already set up for that purpose.

The Senate President called on the Executive and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to agree on a policy of monetary easing to stimulate the economy and harmonise monetary and fiscal policy until economic recovery is attained.

He also advocated that local government borrowing should not crowd out credit for the private sector.

While calling for immediate release of funds to ensure the implementation of the budget for the near short term to inject money into the economy, he asked his colleagues to accelerate the passage of bills aimed at reforming the mortgage sub-sector for growth and accessibility in a manner that deepens people’s access to housing, jobs and economic activities.

He called for the quick passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and economic reform bills like the amendment of the Nigerian Ports and Harbours Authority Act (Amendment) Bill 2016; National Road Fund (Establishment, etc); National Transport Commission Act 2001; Warehouse Receipts Act Bill 2016; Review of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), Investment and Securities Act (ISA) and Customs and Excise Management Act; Federal Competition Bill 2016 and the National Road Authority Bill.

According to  him, the Senate will through an exhaustive debate find the way forward and work together with the executive to get the country out of recession ‘as soon as practicable’.

“The Executive must re-tool its export promotion policy scheme with export incentives such as the resumption of the Export Expansion Grant (EEG); and introduce export-financing initiatives.

“The Executive is urged to engage in meaningful dialogue with those aggrieved in the Niger Delta and avoid an escalation of the conflict in the region. The National Assembly is very ready to play any role in the process and offer ideas on approaches that will deliver quick win-win in order to move the region and the economy forward.

“The Executive must as a deliberate response consider immediate release of funds to ensure the implementation of the budget for the near short term to inject money into the economy”, he stated.

Saraki added that while government works on the medium to long-term plans, immediate strategies must be devised that would ease the suffering of the ordinary people across our country.

According to him, “particular attention should be given to our citizens in IDP camps. The images emerging from this zone of deprivation and hunger is no longer acceptable. Government should accelerate interim measures to provide social safety-nets to our people and assuage current high level of misery in the land. Such intervention should seek to fully execute the social spending framework already provided in the 2016 budget”.