Senate President Bukoka Saraki has disclosed that the 11 priority economic reform bills meant to get the country out of recession will help to create 7.5 million jobs and reduce poverty by 16.4 percent when passed into law.
Saraki, who disclosed this in his welcome address to senators on resumption from their Christmas and New Year recess, urged the relevant committees to fast track the priority bills so they could be passed and submitted to the executive alongside the 2017 budget.
Giving its agenda for 2017, Saraki said the 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) would be debated and passed this week while the consideration on the 2017 budget would occupy the three legislative sittings of next week.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on December 14, 2016 submitted the 2017 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly.
The Senate president, however, urged all heads of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA) to ensure timely submission of their annual budgets within the current budget cycle or risk waiting for the next fiscal cycle if they fail.
“As long as our economy is still in recession, our work is not done. Because our people are still being laid off; so long as factories are closing shop, for as long as the hardship in the land continues to bite harder, investment continues to dwindle and the foreign exchange market remains fragmented, I will be demanding even much more from us to get all our economic reform bills passed.
“Ideally we would like to see them pass together with the 2017 budget. Let me therefore urge all our committees involved with our priority bills to double efforts to ensure that by the end of the first quarter of this year we will have these bills ready.
“We promise to pass our priority economic reform bills to help aid our economic recovery. This is a promise we must keep. There are already, new NASSBER (National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable) research findings projecting that our priority bills, will have an output impact equivalent to an average of 6.87% of GDP over a 5-year period on the economy.
“The average annual growth in jobs is estimated at approximately 7.55 million additional employments as well as an average of 16.42% reduction in Nigeria’s poverty rate.
“Over the projected 5-year period, it is suggested that the reforms, which these bills would engender, may add an average of N3.76 trillion to National incomes (National Disposable Income was N85.62trn in 2014), equivalent to 4.39% of 2014 figures.
“These statistics make the delivery of these bills imperative and confirm evidently that we have got our priorities right so far. It is hoped that as we begin to turn our focus now towards the passage of the 2017 budget, these bills will be implemented simultaneously with the budget to enable us exit the recession quickly.
“It is therefore imperative that we immediately begin work earnestly on the MTEF to ensure passage by the end of the week. In this way, consideration and debate on the 2017 budget will immediately follow in the three sitting days of the next week. It is our hope that we will with this budget begin the implementation of the report of the Committee on Budget Reforms, which has since submitted its report.
“This will enable more Nigerians participate in the budget consideration process, deepen the review and create the necessary efficiencies we expect from our budget implementation,” Saraki said.
Some of the economic recovery bills include: the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, National Development Bank of Nigeria Bill, National Road Fund Act (Amendment) bill, Federal Roads Authority Act (Amendment) bill, Customs and Excise Reform Act, National Transport Commission Act (Amendment) Bill.
All the bills have passed Committee Stage and the relevant panels are expected to submit their reports anytime from now.
While noting that 2016 was a “very challenging year” for Nigerians, Saraki assured lawmakers that the work the Senate has done is gradually setting the stage for a greater and better 2017.
“It is already historic that within the last quarter, which incidentally is the second quarter of this session, we all rolled up our sleeves, with sweat on our brows and successfully passed 49 bills through 3rd Reading and 68 bills through Second Reading.
“This is a record setting feat, which has never been matched in the history of the National Assembly. That within a period of four months in the middle of the term of any past National Assembly, 49 bills are passed in a single quarter”.
He stressed the importance of the 2017 budget in helping the economy to exit recession and urged his colleagues to double up efforts to get the passed budget to the executive for implementation within the shortest possible time.
“There is hardly a point reiterating the importance of making the 2017 budget the most successful budget we have ever passed, neither is it important to emphasise the need to have this budget back on the desk of the executive on time for implementation,” he said.
“As you may be aware, based on the recommendations of the Budget Reform Committee, we are working towards ensuring that budgets are prepared and submitted timely, so that implementation will follow a regular fiscal circle.
“In this regard, the National Assembly will not tolerate agencies of government not submitting their budgets within the budget period. This is why I urge all agencies yet to submit their budgets to do so quickly as budgets not received within time may have to wait for the next budget circle,” he said.
He emphasised the need for the National Assembly to pursue and conclude the ongoing constitutional review process by the end of March and said “We must do this to ensure that our people begin to enjoy the benefits of the intended reforms which will help strengthen our unity, increase our prosperity and opportunity as we as expand our liberty and happiness across the country”.
He said the Senate would henceforth not spare any organization that trample on the rights of consumers in the country by paying keen attention to the “protection and preservation of consumer rights” adding that the “current situation where consumers’ rights are violated and treated with indignity must stop.”
On the power sector, Saraki said: “Before we left for the break, myself, a select few of us and stakeholders in the power sector met to get an understanding of why no progress has been made thus far despite the best intention; and the revelations were mind-boggling.
“There had been errors in the privatisation process and the model by which the power sector is being operated—whether at generation or distribution—will never take us where we need to be.
“It has failed and nobody appears willing to tackle the issue head-on towards a permanent resolution. I have mandated the Senate Committee on Power to continue the consultation with the relevant parties to forge a path to solving our crippling power deficit. After all, if we are going to drive Nigerian industry, we need to resolve this and fast,” he said.
He lamented that the issue of policy inconsistencies continues to challenge the nation’s business environment and reiterated his view that “for a private sector-led economy to thrive, we need to reform our policy environment to give investors and our businessmen and women ample adjustment time to make informed investment decisions rather than have uncertainties.”
He also called on the executive to commence an open and meaningful dialogue with the Niger Delta militants in order to stabilise the petroleum industry and take advantage of rising crude prices in the international community to turn around the fortunes of the nation’s economy.
Activities of Niger Delta militants have hampered the 2.2million barrels per day oil production projected in 2016 to 1.2m barrels per day.
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