Economy

News Flash: Finally, Senate passes PIB into law, 13 years after –concedes three percent revenue to host communities.

Eyewitness reporter

The Senate Thursday finally passed the controversial and highly contentious Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB) into law 13 years after it was first introduced in the National Assembly.

The bill, which has 318 clauses, grants three percent operating expenditure of oil companies to the host communities.

This was however against the five percent that was advocated by the oil-rich South-South communities.

After a third reading by the Chairman, the PIB was passed, Joint Committee Petroleum (upstream and downstream) and gas, Mallam Mohammed Sabo, presented a report and its 318 clauses were put to a voice vote and passed within 10 minutes.

He said the legislation is aimed at promoting transparency, good governance and accountability in the oil and gas industry.

Sabo also noted that the committee recommended that 30 percent of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) profit from oil and gas should be used to fund the exploration of frontier basins.

“The various obsolete laws currently in operation in the country have been updated and consolidated in this chapter to meet global competitiveness and best practices.

“A total of 355 amendments were recommended to this chapter while others were retained,” Sabo said.

During the consideration of the bill in the committee of the whole and at the public hearing, representatives of the host communities demanded 10 percent allocation even though five percent was proposed.

The joint committee recommended three percent after a meeting of the Senators with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva and the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Mele Kyari, which three percent was accepted as what is due to host communities.

Meanwhile, the Senator representing Delta south, Mr. James Manager, in his remarks, said 5 percent was not too much for the host communities.

However, the bill, which has five parts, eight schedules and 318 clauses, was finally passed.

An elated Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, congratulated members of the National Assembly, adding that the ninth National Assembly has delivered on one of its core legislative mandates.

He said that the ninth National Assembly has finally broken the jinx and defeated the demon of PIB by passing it into law.

The PIB was first introduced into the National Assembly in 2008 as an Executive bill by then President, Umar Yar’Adua.

The Sixth National Assembly (2007 – 2011) failed to pass the bill.

The bill was reintroduced into the National Assembly in 2012 by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Economy

Buhari, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Babangida, Abdusalami, Osinbajo, Atiku, others to spend N13.8billon from N27.5 trillion 2024 budget

Tinubu presentation of 2024 budget to the National Assembly

The Eyewitness Reporter

The Federal government has earmarked the sum of N13.8 billion in the 2024 budget as the cost of upkeep of
former presidents, vice presidents, heads of state, Chiefs of General Staff, retired heads of service, permanent secretaries, and retired heads of government agencies and parastatals.

The beneficiaries include former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, ex-vice-presidents Atiku Abubakar, Namadi Sambo and Prof Yemi Osinbajo.

Also expected to benefit from the windfall are ex-military Heads of State, General Yakubu Gowon and General Abdusalami Abubakar, as well as a former dictator and self-styled military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, and a former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (retd.).

Also, N1tn was provisioned for the public service wage adjustment for government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (including arrears of promotion and salary increases, and payment of severance benefits and minimum wage-related adjustments).

A breakdown shows that the entitlements of former presidents/heads of state and vice presidents/chief of general staff will cost N2.3bn. At the same time, N10.5bn is proposed as benefits for retired heads of service, permanent secretaries and professors.

The payment of severance benefits to retired heads of government agencies and parastatals is proposed to cost N1bn.

Other allocations include N65bn for the Presidential Amnesty Programme for the reintegration of transformed ex-militants; N1bn for the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Energy; and N108bn for unnamed special projects.

The government is also proposing the sum of N40bn to offset electricity debts owed to power distribution companies by all MDAs.

President Bola Tinubu unveiled the N27.5 trillion budget estimates for the 2024 fiscal year.
The budget was presented to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, where it is currently undergoing scrutiny and deliberation for final approval.

In his presentation, he declared, “The 2024 Appropriation has been themed the Budget of Renewed Hope.

The proposed budget seeks to achieve job-rich economic growth, macro-economic stability, a better investment environment, enhanced human capital development, as well as poverty reduction and greater access to social security.

Economy

CBN freezes accounts without BVN, NIN by March 2024

CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso

Effective March 1st, 2024, any account or wallet without the Bank Verification Number (BVN) or National Identity Number (NIN) shall be frozen.

This disclosure was made by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in a circular released on Friday to all commercial, merchant, non-interest and payment service banks, including other financial institutions and mobile money operators.

In the circular, the Apex bank said a “Post no Debt or Credit” will be placed on unfunded and funded accounts without BVN or NIN starting from the said date.

The circular reads, “As part of its effort to promote financial system stability, it becomes necessary to strengthen the Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures in financial institutions under the purview of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“Accordingly, the CBN hereby issues an amendment to Sections 1 & 3 of the Regulatory Framework for Bank Verification Number (BVN) Operations and Watch-List for the Nigerian Banking Industry (The Guidelines).

“In this regard: It is mandatory for ALL Tier-1 bank accounts and wallets for individuals to have BVN and/or NIN;

“it remains mandatory for Tiers 2 & 3 accounts and wallets for Individual accounts to have BVN and NIN,

“The process for account opening shall commence by electronically retrieving BVN or NIN related information from the NIBSS’ BVN or NIMC’s NIN databases and for same to become the primary information for onboarding of new customers, and

“All existing customer accounts/wallets for individuals with validated BVN shall be provided in the NIBSS’ ICAD immediately and within 24 hours of opening accounts/wallets.

“Consequently, the implementation shall be as follows: Effective immediately, no new Tier-1 accounts and wallets should be opened without BVN or NIN.

“For ALL existing Tier-1 accounts/wallets without BVN or NIN: Effective immediately, any unfunded account/wallet shall be placed on “Post No Debit or Credit” until the new process is satisfied;

“Effective March 1, 2024, all funded accounts or wallets shall be placed on “Post No Debit or Credit” and no further transactions permitted.

“The BVN or NIN attached to and/or associated with ALL accounts/wallets must be electronically revalidated by January 31, 2024.

“To ensure uniform and full compliance, the Execute Compliance Officers, Chief Compliance Officers, or Heads of the Compliance Functions are advised to acquaint themselves with the attached Guidance Notes which becomes applicable to ALL institutions regulated by the CBN.

“Also, a comprehensive BVN and NIN audit shall be conducted shortly and where breaches are identified, appropriate sanctions shall be applied.

“Finally, all financial institutions regulated by CBN are required to apply strict compliance on restrictions on Tier-1 accounts/wallets as they relate to limits on transaction values and cumulative balances.”

Economy

SON seeks jail term for importers, smugglers of fake , substandard products.

The eyewitness reporter

The Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) has initiated a move to prosecute and jail importers and smugglers who profiteer in fake and substandard products.

According to the immediate past Director General, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mallam Farouk Salim, the action will serve as a deterrent to what he called illicit activities and also protect the indigenous manufacturers and the Nigerian economy.

He said that the agency is committed to defending and protecting indigenous companies and the Nigerian public from economic sabotage.

Speaking with journalists at the destruction site of some seized items in Lagos Thursday, October 12th, 2021, Salim stated that the seized items which include electrical cables, aluminum sheets, motor tyres and motor oil were fake and their quality had been compromised and if used could lead to loss of lives and properties.

He stressed that while the agency is keen on ensuring local industries thrive by providing standards in tandem with best practices across the world, he lamented that smugglers and imposters work to subvert the process by importing expired and substandard products and erroneously copying established Indigenous brands.

“This is affecting our economy, especially with our government policy on homegrown economy.

“We have to make sure our successful homegrown economy is protected. All these products you are seeing here are a danger to the society.

“That is why we are destroying them. We want to make sure nobody else uses these products.

“Our Nigerian lubricant manufacturers, when successful, unfortunately, have to contend with individuals trying to copy them.

” Nobody copies a product that is not successful. So, the product you are seeing behind does not belong to that popular company.

” It’s somebody trying to fake their product and we took the person to court, he was convicted and then the court gave us permission to confiscate these products and destroy them.

“The same thing with the cables. Our cable industry is one of the most successful industries in Nigeria.

” And like I said, success breeds copying. The only problem is this copying is bad copying.

” All our Nigerian-based cable industries know that people are copying their products.

”The Cable Manufacturing Association of Nigeria keeps a vigilant eye on these fake people. Sometimes they inform us about them, sometimes our intelligence as a group finds those people before even the companies report them.”

The erstwhile SON DG explained that many cases of motor accidents and house fires are caused by substandard tyres and cable which are smuggled into the economy.

Salim said that the agency will continue to clamp down on smugglers and fake producers of products to ensure a robustly improved standard across all sections of the economy.

He further reiterated that the agency would employ transparency to ensure that it gains public trust and cooperation.

“Sometimes,when we confiscate items, the owners will go to court because they will not let us have permission to destroy them.

” And because of that, some of these items have been sitting here for a while. And once in a while, when everything is done and we have permission from the courts, we have to come here and we invite the owners to come and witness too.

” Because we don’t want them to think we are confiscating their goods and then selling it to somebody else.”

He also added that the agency is looking to receive the necessary approval to prosecute and sentence offenders in this regard to serve as a deterrent to other Nigerians who may be looking to venture into this evil trade.

“We went to the National Assembly to review our act to make sure peddlers of life-threatening materials are actually jailed and not just fined.”