The House of Representatives stated on Thursday that it is dedicated to making current laws better for exporting goods made in Nigeria. This is to increase the money the country makes from other countries' currency.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring, Boma Godhead, made a promise at a public meeting about two bills, called ‘Nigerian Content (Non-Oil and Gas Sector) Development (Establishment) Bill and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Bill.
The lawmaker said that these bills are very important for making Nigerian content stronger in both the oil and gas and non-oil and gas areas, especially in growing the country’s industries.
She mentioned that sending out goods made in Nigeria will not only create more jobs but also make the value of the naira stronger.
She said, “As you know, making laws is one of the main things the National Assembly is supposed to do. So, the event we are seeing today is a regular part of how the laws are made. Bills are suggested to change, cancel, or make a new law.
“Given our current experiences with Nigerian Content policies, it's clear that we really need to cancel and make the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act 2010, and also plan and do programs for Nigerian content development and checking in the non-oil and gas area to copy and even do better than what was achieved in the Nigerian Content development in the oil and gas area, and the non-oil and gas area of the economy.”
Godhead also said that what's in the two Bills “are still just suggestions until they are made into Acts of the National Assembly.”
In his main speech, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, said the planned changes to the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Act, 2010, aim to fix some mistakes in the Act. He noted that “some important parts of the Act are written in a way that gives a lot of power to the people in charge, especially on giving permission to do things, which can lead to abuse of power.”
The Speaker, represented by the Deputy Minority Whip, George Ozodinobi, said the Non-oil and Gas (establishment) Bill aims to “make sure the Nigerian economy is more varied by using Nigerian ideas in transactions in the non-oil and gas area.”
Tajudeen added that this means making Nigeria stronger in important areas like ICT, mining, power, maritime, manufacturing, health, and agriculture. This is done by putting money into education, passing on skills and expertise, sharing technology knowledge, and promoting research programs.
