Buhari’s Economic Team meet, puts  finishing touches to Exclusive Power Bill

The President’s Economic Management Team on Monday held its weekly meeting to review and put finishing touches to the proposed economic stabilization bill.

The bill seeks to enable the President with ‘exclusive powers’ that will allow him fastback processes for economic activities rather than follow extant laws that take a longer time.

Data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last week showed Nigeria had slid into a recession as GDP figures for the second quarter of 2016 showed that growth rate dropped further from -0.36 percent in the first quarter to -2.06 per cent year-on-year.

Government sources said the EMT at its meeting which held at the Vice President’s conference room on Monday tidied up the document “so that
once the President receives it, it will be moved to the National Assembly”.

Members of the private sector were not invited for the meeting which usually hold behind closed doors.

The President is said to be pursuing sweeping emergency powers through a bill tilted “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016” to to launch some economic activities which he thinks would reflate the economy as it struggles with recession.

The bill which would be forwarded to the National Assembly for approval seeks to empower the President to set aside some extant laws and use executive orders to roll out economic recovery packages within the next one year.

If approved, the president will have powers to abridge the procurement process to support stimulus spending on critical sectors of the economy, make
orders in favor of  local  suppliers in contract awards, trim the process of sale or lease of government assets to generate revenue and allow for urgent budgetary allocation to projects without recourse to lawmakers.

The bill also seeks to amend the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act so that states can access fund hitherto trapped in the accounts of the commission due to their inability to meet the counterpart funding requirement. Also, the bill seeks to make provision for reforms in visa issuance in foreign consular offices and allow for visas to issued on arrival in the country. Agencies including the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the National Agency for Foods Administration and Control (NAFDAC), others, will be compelled to improve on their turnaround time to boost new businesses.

Industry watchers and analysts have expressed concerns about the need for the use of exclusive powers by the President to salvage Nigeria’s already collapsing economy.