THE House of Representatives on Wednesday halted the proposed concession of the Ajaokuta Steel Company by passing a bill to provide for the withdrawal of $1 billion from the excess crude account for the completion of the project.
The House at the committee of whole presided over by Speaker Honourable Yakubu Dogara considered “A bill for an act to provide for the Ajaokuta Steel Company completion fund for the speedy completion of the project and for related matters”
On the same Ajaokuta, the House considered “A bill for an act to amend the Public Enterprises (privatisation and commercialisation) Act, Cap. p. 38, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to review the list of enterprises to be privatised; and for related matters.
The two bills were sponsored by Hon Uzoma Nkem-Abonta and 300 others were aimed at stopping the planned concession of the Ajaokuta steel company.
The amendment of the privatisation act has removed the Ajaokuta steel plant from the list of public assets which the federal government has powers to privatise or concession.
The House by this amendment stripped the National Council on Privatisation of its powers as the only body backed by law to decide on which firms should be on the schedule.
Also, the House considered and passed the report of the conference committee on a bill for an act to provide for the Governance and Institutional Framework for the Petroleum Industry (PIGB) and for related matters and approve the recommendations therein.
It will be recalled that the House had passed the PIGB, which is one of the four segments of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in January 2018. When signed into law, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will be unbundled, while there will be established the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Incorporated, Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Nigerian Petroleum Assets Management Company and National Petroleum Company and Petroleum Equalisation Fund.
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