Nigerian economy in last 24 months: What experts say

Credit Rating
Fitch’s credit rating for Nigeria was last reported at B+ with negative outlook as at 26th January 2017.Standard & Poor’s credit rating for Nigeria stands at B with stable outlook. Moody’s credit rating for Nigeria was last set at B1 with stable outlook.

In general, a credit rating is used by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other investors to gauge the credit worthiness of a country, thus having a big impact on its borrowing costs.

Biggest economy in Africa
Flash back to 2014, Nigeria “rebased” its gross domestic product (GDP) data, which pushed it above South Africa as the continent’s biggest economy.

Nigerian GDP was restructured to include previously uncounted industries like telecoms, information technology, music, online sales, airlines, and film production.

Nigeria’s GDP for 2013 totalled 80.3 trillion naira (£307.6bn: $509.9bn), the Nigerian Bureau of statistics said.

That was compared with South Africa’s GDP of $370.3bn at the end of 2013.
However, some economists at the time pointed out that Nigeria’s economic output was underperforming because with 170 million people, its population was three times larger than that of South Africa.

On a per-capita basis, South Africa’s GDP numbers are three times larger than that of Nigeria.

At that time, a Nigerian financial analyst, Bismarck Rewane called ‘rebasing’ “a vanity”.

According to him, “The Nigerian population is not better off tomorrow because of that announcement. It doesn’t put more money in the bank, more food in their stomach. It changes nothing.”

Rebasing is carried out so that a nation’s GDP statistics give the most up-to-date picture of an economy as possible.

Most countries do it at least every three years or so, but according to statistics, Nigeria had not updated the components in its GDP since 1990.

By1990, the country had one telecoms operator (NITEL) with around 300,000 phone lines. Now it has a whole mobile phone industry with tens of millions of subscribers.

Again, while 24 years ago there was only one airline (Nigeria Airways), now there are many.

Nigeria still Africa’s biggest economy?
The debate rages on.
Business Times presents an analysis of select sectors of the economy, 24 months into the administration of President MuhammaduBuhari.
Economy, Forex, others in two years of Buhari

With an estimated 4.5 million people who have lost their jobs, an inflation rate steady at 17.24 per cent, with food and energy costs edging up continuously, financial stakeholders in the country have rated the current administration with President MuhammoduBuhari two years at the helm low, while commending some policies implemented during the years under review.

For instance, the chance of Nigeria coming out of its current economy recession in the nearest future looks gloomy, as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently revealed that the nation has recorded a 2017 first quarter (Q1) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of -0.52 per cent, which means that the largest economy in Africa is still in a recession.

The latest negative economic growth rate representing the fifth consecutive quarter of contraction since Q1 2016, while recording 0.15 per cent higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016 and higher by 1.21 per cent points from rate recorded in the preceding quarter. However, quarter on quarter, real GDP growth was 12.92 per cent.

During the quarter, aggregate GDP stood at N26, 028,356.03 million in nominal terms, compared to N22, 235,315.29 million in Q1 2016, resulting in a Nominal GDP growth of 17.06%. This growth was higher, relative to growth recorded in Q1 2016 (11.39%). The Nigerian economy can be more clearly understood when classified into oil and non-oil.

Financial analysts believed that for Nigeria to exit the recession officially, it will have to post a positive real GDP growth rate. At -0.52%, the first quarter real GDP growth rate is a much more improvement from the -1.73 recorded in the last quarter of 2016.

But NBS stated that the latest contraction of 0.52 percent was the best performance in four quarters, compared to revised 1.73 percent contraction in Q4 of 2016 and 0.67 percent in Q1 2016.

Still in negative territory, the oil sector saw a boost in its fortune as it contributes 8.9 percent of the country’s GDP, as against the 6.75 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.

The non-oil GDP grew by 0.72 percent to record the best performance in four quarters, when compared to -0.33 percent in Q4 2016 and -0.18 percent in Q1 2016.

Despite this performance, the contribution of the non-oil sector to GDP declined by nearly two percent from 93.25 percent in Q4 2016 to 91.10 percent.

Transport services GDP contracted by 4.01 percent in Q1 2017 from -2.63 percent in Q4 2016 and 2.23 percent in Q1 2016.

According to Yemi Kale, the statistician general of the nation, many sectors of the economy turned positive but failed to get the country out of recession.

In August 2016, NBS pronounced Nigeria’s first recession since the return of democracy in 1999, stating that the economy shrank by 2.06 percent in the second quarter of 2016 to hit its lowest point in nearly three decades.

According to World Bank data, the last time Nigeria had this magnitude of economic decline was under the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, when the economy recorded consecutive declines of 0.51 percent and 0.82 percent in first and second quarters of 1987.

The World Bank, IMF, CBN, ministry of finance and the Nigerian presidency have all said at one time or the other that the Nigerian economy will get out of recession in 2017.

But as the nation celebrates its democracy day today, May 29, 2017, economists believe that the Buhari administration has achieved remarkable milestones in terms of security and anti-graft war, but the economy is worse off under its management than it inherited on May 29, 2015.

“This administration has not fared well with the management of the economy. That is the blunt fact and the indices are there to corroborate this fact,” Dr Boniface Chizea, Managing Consultant, BIC Consulting Services Limited, said.

He noted that the six months it took President Buhari to assemble his ministerial team had a devastating effect on the economic prospects of the country.

He also pointed out that the drama and tardiness which characterized the passage and signing of the 2016 budget also dealt a big blow on the economy, creating uncertainty in the system. This caused over 3.67 million to be thrown out of job in 2016 and unemployment jumping from 8.2 percent in Q2 2015 to 13.9 percent at the end of September 2016, according to NBS.

The N7.44 trillion 2017 budget was recently passed by the National Assembly but has not been signed into law.
Rising cost of food and other essential goods pushed inflation rate which was 9 percent in May 2015 to reacha12 year high in January this year, when it hit 18.72 percent. It has however, reversed to 17.24 in April after three consecutive declines.

In his view, Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, opined that the government came to power at a time crude oil had fallen from a peak of over $114 per barrel in 2014 to $27 per barrel in January 2016, which adversely affected the country’s revenue. Crude oil contributes over 70 percent of government revenue and 90 percent of the country’s foreign exchange.

The decline in oil prices caused acute foreign exchange volatility in Nigeria, with the naira depreciating to N525 per dollar in February 2017, the Central Bank started its aggressive intervention in the forex market, which has stabilized the currency at around $/N380-N390.

He attributed the below par economic performance of the President Buhari administration to decline oil prices.

He claimed the government failed to address unemployment, economic growth, wealth creation and forex, which he said the administration should not blamed for, because external factors had a significant contribution to the volatility.

“In terms of economic management, the government has its work cut out for it,” the Cowry Asset Management boss enunciated.

Mr Chukwu commended the government’s anti-graft crusade, adding that it has achieved a lot of feat in the fight against corruption in the country.

The Attorney-General of Federation and Minister of Justice, AbubakarMalami disclosed last week that President Buhari administration has recovered N59.9 billion and another $666,676 within its first two years in office.

Nigerian Maritime Sector: A voyage of pain, pleasure

When President MuhammaduBuhari took the reins as the number one citizen of the country, he made the diversification of the economy one of the key points of his administration’s goals. The maritime industry in Nigeria is reputed to have the potentials to do just that, two years after.

With a potential of generating around N7trillion naira annually, the maritime sector has however been held down by myriads of challenges; Maritime domain security, ease of doing business, and poor access roads, amongst all.

Recently, pirates hijacked a ship off the coast of Nigeria, prior to that another boat was hijacked by pirates, in all, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has been a major threat to the maritime sector in Nigeria.

To further underscore the threat of insecurity in the sector, the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS few days ago intercepted a container laden with 440 pump action rifles, this came on the heels of a similar seizure of 660 pump action guns four months earlier.

Few weeks ago, the sector was also recently shut down due to a strike action by the freight forwarding agencies in the ports who suspended all activities due to the poor port access roads.

Similarly, the country has also been grappling with the diversion of cargoes to neighboring countries due to unfriendly business environment, high shipping duties as multiple charges hamper the ease of doing business in Nigerian ports. All these and more are some of the problems hampering the progress of the sector.

To solve the various problems hindering the growth of the sector, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria’s apex maritime regulatory has re-defined strategy for response to distress calls leading to reduced cases of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea as reported by the International Maritime Bureau for the year 2016.

To curb this, NIMASA now operates a 24-hour surveillance system, which captures all vessels in Nigeria’s maritime domain irrespective of weather conditions
On pressure from the United States Government for Nigerian ports to achieve compliance with the International Ship and Ports facility Safety (ISPS) code, the strict enforcement of security protocols by NIMASA officials has engendered a compliance rate of almost 80% as 114 Port facilities out of the total 145 ports in Nigeria are now fully ISPS compliant.

This feat attracted commendation from the United States Coast Guard team which rightly observed that compliance levels were at 13% before NIMASA was appointed the Designated Authority for the implementation of ISPS Code in Nigeria.

Buoyed by the prevailing recession, NIMASA, in its quest to enhance revenue, commenced the billing of Pipelines, Oil Rigs and FPSO’s aided by data from the surveillance system. According to the DG, “this is driving our desire to fully automate the Agency’s Billing System, with a view to reduce the 24-hour operational billing timeframe to 6 hours.”

As part of developing infrastructure capacity, NIMASA has placed orders for the fifth largest modular floating dockyard on the African continent, which should save the country about 100 million dollars annually from the dry docking of vessels operating in Nigeria, which are mostly done outside the country at the moment.

Dakuku highlighted the development of intellectual capacity as a major milestone while giving a scorecard of his first year at the helm.

Locally, the Agency conducted an audit of all NIMASA accredited maritime training institutions in line with the International Convention on the Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for Seafarers (STCW). 16 institutions including the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron and The Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology were inspected during the exercise.

Peterside also extolled the achievements recorded by the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme, NSDP which he described as ‘the jewel of NIMASA’s human capacity development initiatives.”

He pointed out that “So far, 1,045 beneficiaries have graduated from the project, representing 42% graduates of the over 2500 NIMASA sponsored beneficiaries.

On the other hand, another sister agency, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA is not left out. Recently, the agency entered into an arrangement with leading companies to rehabilitate the poor port access roads. The agency also recently acquired 4 top of the range tug-boats to enhance efficiency.

There are also hopes that the much awaited Single Window platform will kick into gear in the second quarter of the year if the words of the Managing Director of the agency, Ms HadeezaBala Usman is anything to go by.

The economic regulator of the sector, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, NSC is also not left out as completion of some of the Inland Dry Ports also known as Inland Container Depots, ICDs are on track.

However, stakeholders in the industry have highlighted that reduction in the cost of doing business at Nigerian ports will prevent diversion of cargoes to neighbouring countries.

This according to President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, PrinceOlayiwolaShittu will enable the country to achieve its huge potentials.

“It’s a known fact that the country huge potentials in the maritime sector and it is yet to be tapped. If the leadership of the country puts in place all the right things and does what is right, the country will benefit immensely from the sector” he said.

In the same vein, President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero urged the administration to put all the necessary structures in place to enable the country harness its huge maritime potentials. The diversion of cargoes to neighbouring countries must be addressed. Port access roads must be fixed, the right regulations and enabling environments must be provided” he added.

Aviation Sector: 2 years of PMB administration

Events and activities in the nation’s aviation sector have shown significant improvements since President MuhammaduBuhari assumed office on May 29, 2015, two years ago.
In an effort to transform the transportation industry, the current administration made enormous efforts to reposition the aviation sector through proper restructuring, infrastructural development, security and ultimately safety of lives and properties according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.

Although, the administration came up and started ab initio, with the slogan-Airport Concessioning as a campaign to ensure that they concession four of the viable airports in the country, including: Abuja, Port Harcourt, Lagos and Kano airports, the concession proposal was however, overtaken by flight diversion from NnamdiAzikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja to Kaduna International Airport, following the poor state of the runway at that time.

On March 8, 2017 federal government shutdown NAIA for six-weeks to give room for repair works on the runway, making the Kaduna airport as the only alternative to Abuja flights.

In what can be described as a landmark achievement in Nigeria’s aviation, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Aviation successfully reopened the Abuja airport, ahead of the April 19 deadline given by the government.

One of the major events that heralded the year in the aviation industry was the suspension of flight operations by three airlines in a row within a week.

The airlines which shut down operations due to recession and high cost of aviation fuel, foreign exchange, charges and others were Aero Contractors, FirstNation and Arik.

Although Arik recommenced operations after stoppage but others are yet to resume flight, after several months of suspension of flight operations. Consequently, Aero Contractors and Arik are under the management of the Assets Management Conpany of Nigeria (AMCOM).

The true position in the year, particularly, 2016 was that airline operators barely survived in 2016, having been burdened with a lot of challenges, including lack of aviation fuel, foreign exchange, manpower, multiple taxation, charges etc.

Many of them were on the verge of being declared insolvent, just as the major ones are no longer reliable, with epileptic flight operations characterised by delays, flight cancellations, fare hike and general poor customer services.

To caution the effect of recession, the Federal Government on behalf of foreign airlines and domestic operators under the aegis of Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON) got the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to include airlines operating from Nigeria in the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange market through forward settlement.

As part of the restructuring process by the Minister of Aviation, Senator HadiSirika and to make proper placements in the agencies, the Aviation Ministry initiated demotions, sack and other changes at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency NAMA and Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority NCAA.

Despite recession and challenges faced by operators, aviation since May 29, 2015 recorded quite a number of international accolades. First was the election of the FAAN MD, Engr Saleh Dunoma as President of Airports Council International ACI Africa; re-election of President of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council, Dr.Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu and the opening of Nigerian office by renowned aircraft maker, Airbus.

Apart from the achievements above, four more airlines in Nigeria obtained the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Operational safety Audit (IOSA) certification. Medview Airline, Allied Air, Dana Air and Air Peace obtained the IATA’s IOSA certification between 2016 and 2017. Many new airlines are already, documenting their papers to join flight operation in the country.

To improve airport services, FAAN has stepped up activities at most of the nation’s airports for better service delivery.

For instance, in November last year, the agency commissioned 3 ultra-modern carousels and conveyor belts at the D-Arrivals of the MurtalaMuhammed International Airport (MMIA) as part of efforts to reduce delays and fast track departure formalities of arriving passengers.

The facility is one of many projects embarked by the Federal government to hasten passengers’ facilitation at the airports to keep pace with the growing traffic which has been on the increase since the commencement of the remodeling project, and the immense growth of the country as the fastest growing economy in Africa.

FAAN has also given most of the airports facelift, including Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Lagos where the Vice President, Prof YomiOsibanjo visited recently.

Sadly and quite unfortunately, fire razed down some offices in FAAN headquarters in Lagos on the 11th of April to be precise. The fire incident affected some offices in the agency’s corporate headquarters.

Shortly after the fire incident, FAAN in collaboration with the Lagos State Fire Department and other security agencies have set up panel to investigate and find out the cause of the fire outbreak.

Energy/Power

The Energy Industry has faced a lot of challenges in the last two years which affected its growth negatively.

These challenges are listed to include crash in the international oil prices, militancy in the Niger Delta, Divestment by the International Oil companies (IOCs), delay in the passage of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), lack of full deregulation of petroleum products, inability to build new refineries to refine locally, scarcity of forex to import petroleum products and subsidy scam.

Addressing these issues, Dr. Ade Afolabi is the Chairman/ CEO, Dansaki Petroleum Limited, said last year,2016, Oil production stands at 1.6 million barrels per day while targeted production is 3 million barrels.

When there is fall in the oil price as being experienced now, we should refine locally and also promote energy means. The refineries should be maintained and also build new ones.

Supporting this view, The Chairman/CEO of International Energy Services Limited, Dr.DiranFawibe said we should learn a big lesson from what happened last year and this year. “We had the problem of eating with our whole fingers in the mouth. We were not making provision for the rainy day.

The states governors were agitating to share from the excess crude account and also from the federation account. Even though. They were warned. They turned deaf ears to the warnings by former Finance Minister, Dr.NgoziOkonjo-Iweala. It was a thug of war to establish Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Also speaking in the same vein, Managing Director, Frontier Oil Limited, Dada Thomas said “I believe Nigeria has the ability to produce 2.2 million barrels of oil a day, but that ability has been hampered by the militancy and the attack on oil installations by the Niger Delta Avengers and the many derivatives thereof.

So the real impediment to achieving the 2.2 million barrels of oil a day is not a technical impediment, it is a societal impediments and it is the consequence of mismanagement of the Niger Delta. This is not a new thing, it has been happening for so long through successive governments.”

“But let’s not worry about the past but focus at the present and the future. Presently, the government has started engaging with the wider Niger Delta community.

You saw the visit by the Vice President, Prof YemiOsinbajo,in Delta regions. But within a day the militants struck, which is a signal that those the government is talking to don’t represent all of them.

There are still dissatisfied members of the Niger Delta. The government has to widen its engagement pattern, talk to all the right people and let them to come to a consensus that will help to addressing the militancy now and the future.

The Federal government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) still subsidizes petrol. Dr.Afolabi said there should be full deregulation of downstream.

“Sometime in the past, around September 2015, petrol sold for N87 or N90 per litre without subsidy. The problem started when the issue of vandalism surfaced again. We couldn’t export the crude oil and we couldn’t refine locally. If we are sure of maintaining the present refining capacity, and if we anxious about the use of energy and build more refineries. We will overcome the challenge,” he said.

On Gas development and utilization and gas to power, he said “I think there is enabling environment in gas production as there is willing buyer willing seller. It is just like crude oil now as we buy at international market price. If it continues like that, it will encourage production.”

On divestment, the Dansaki boss stated that the International Oil Companies (IOCs) are divesting because of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is yet to be passed, keeps lingering at the National Assembly.

“It is creating uncertainty in the business environment. So also the vandalism and oil theft contributed to the issues that made IOCs to divest. Government should create enabling environment”.

In order to address Vandalization of oil and gas pipelines which has been a major challenge thereby bleeding the nation trillions of foreign exchange which cannot be accounted for, Dr.Afolabi said there should be improvement on the preventive mechanism so as to be able to determine the spillage soon enough to be able to stop it. There are ICT controls that will tell you when you are losing oil from the pipelines.

On full deregulation, Dada Thomas stated that there should have been done long ago. “If I were the president of Nigeria, on May 30, 2016, I would have fully deregulated the downstream sector.

If it has been done, we will not have the situation we have today. So what we have all these days is quasi deregulation. If you deregulate a sector, you don’t fix the price,” he said.

“You seed it to the public to determine the price, who comes to buy and who sells. We are only taking half measures and it doesn’t instill confidence. When you know what to do and you are taking half measure, in a long run you are causing more pain than gain. I call upon the government to fully deregulate the downstream and get itself out of the mess involved,” he added.

The Frontier boss also advocated for increase in the tariff of electricity bill, he argued unless the power tariff is adequate and the investors know that if they invest in the power sector, they will get return on their investment, the problem will persist for a long time

Democracy Day: Labour in retrospect‎ 2 years on

As the 2015 general elections drew closer, several dominant ‎issues from; unemployment, insecurity, dwindling economy, Naira depreciation, worsening epileptic power supply among others, were raised at the opening ceremony of the 11th Quadrennial delegates conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, held in Abuja with labour taking politicians to task.

President Muhammadu Buhari, the flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the presidential election, was guest speaker at the conference organised by NLC in 2015, where he was privileged to address the delegates.

Buhari had promised that the APC government if elected, would create jobs, adding “An APC government will treat labour as a partner in moving the country forward. We will respect the right to Collective Bargaining, promote new skills but we need your support.”

“Our plan to restore good governance, efficient and effective public sector stands to benefit the country’s labour force perhaps more than any other subgroup”, “An APC government will protect and respect labourer’s right to organize, guaranteeing the rights to collective bargaining in good faith in law. We will promote new skills, equip youth for a modern economy through a network of local technology institutions to provide free training in courses for the unemployed”.

Fast forward 2 years, after making such promising speech, the task has seen an almost impossible feat with the current economic realities, the deregulation of the downstream sector, inflation, naira devaluation, insecurity and militancy taking its pound of flesh, and a host of other parasites festing on the growth, development and achievement of the country.

These has made it more difficult for the Buhari-led government to implement or to consider an increase in the salaries of the nation’s workers in the public, and even the private sector of the economy.

Minimum Wage Controversy

April 2016 saw the NLC propose a new minimum wage of N56, 000 to the Federal Government, a proposal believed to be long overdue for a review.

Comrade Ayuba Wabba said Labour proposed the new wage as the law makes provisions for the review of minimum wage, especially at the period when Nigerian economy was in a bad shape.

According to him, minimum wage was designed to ensure that workers were not made to earn below what should sustain them at both private and public institutions.

Wabba said that the Federal Government has to take the issue of minimum wage very seriously if the fight against corruption will succeed.

“The current wage of N18, 000 was negotiated at the time naira’s exchange rate to a dollar was N100 to $1 during former President Jonathan’s administration, but that is no longer the situation today.

Meanwhile, Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said the government “is painstakingly considering the demands.”

He said: “The demand by Labour for the review of the minimum wage is a legitimate request which the federal government is carefully studying and appropriately responding to, we shall all sit down because what the Labour is asking for is the re-negotiation of an existing Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA).

We shall advise the government on the way a tripartite negotiation will be handled for everybody to be satisfied without any industrial unrest.”

Ngige said Labour is part of the tripartite arrangement of the International Labour Organisation structure which Nigeria is signatory to.

However, NLC after suspending its five-day-old strike over increase in the price of petrol had said it will not be part of the palliative committee set-up by the government to cushion the effect of the current economic hardship in the country.

Minimum wage review
Recently, ‎a sigh of relief for workers as The Federal Executive Council, FEC, approved the constitution of a National Minimum Wage Committee to kick start the process of deliberations for a new wage for Nigerian workers.

At the end of the meeting presided over by Acting President, YemiOsinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on the 24th of May 2017.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said the committee would be made up of 29 members. Joined by the Minister of Interior, AbdulramamDanbazzua; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma and the Minister of Environment, Usman Jubril, Ngige said members of the committee would be drawn from organised Labour, federal and state governments. He said the chairman and secretary of the committee would be appointed by the government.

The minister said, “Council deliberated on the report of the joint committee of government on one side and the labour federation of NLC and TUC.”

If you recall, on May 11, 2016, there was a deregulation of oil and gas sector in Nigeria and this resulted in the increase we had in the price of PMS, otherwise called petrol, and as a result of that, the labour federation kicked against the increase and said even if the increase will be there, government should put in place, mechanism to make sure that we do not have further increases.

In that wise, they said PPPRA board should be put in place. They also asked for a review of the minimum wage available to workers in the country in order to enable them have better purchasing power.

“Prior to the increase, they made a demand of N56,000 monthly as the lowest paid wage to any Nigerian worker, which we call minimum wage.

Third, they said they would need some palliatives to cushion the effect of increase in pump price of petrol, transportation allowances and things like that. “So, government put in place that committee.

That committee finished its work on April 21 and handed the report to the SGF. “Today at Council, I presented the report with the various recommendations therein and I am happy to let you know that government has approved the setting up of a national minimum wage committee, comprising 29 persons, with a chairman and a secretary.

“Composition of this committee is that, the federal government will contribute five persons from the public sector, the state governors who are major stakeholders will contribute six governors, one from each geopolitical zone.

‎”Then the labour federations will present eight persons and the organized employers association represented by Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Chamber of Commerce and Small and Medium Enterprises will jointly produce eight persons.

Government will appoint the chairman and the secretary.” Also speaking, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator UdoUdoma, said FEC had begun the review of the 2017 budget passed by the National Assembly recently.

“One of the things we discussed in council was the GDP report for the first quarter which was released by the NBS.

“We found the first quarter encouraging, even though during the first quarter, we were still in recession. But we found it very encouraging as the best result for the past three or four quarters. And it is a sign that we are moving out of recession,” he said.

The Minister also stated that Nigeria was on its way out of recession, saying that indicators in the first quarter of 2017 looked better.

Similarly, The Senate has passed the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill‎. The passage of the bill came 14 years after the original Petroleum Industry Bill was drafted and submitted to the National Assembly.

While presenting the report, the Chairman of the committee, who is also the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Petroleum, Senator TayoAlasoadura, said some subsidiaries of the NNPC had also been merged into an entity to be known as the Nigeria Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

President of the Senate, BukolaSaraki, who presided over the plenary, said the bill had been in the National Assembly “for many years and we have not been able to pass it.”

He added that a commitment was made at the beginning of the eigth Senate that the bill would be passed.

Saraki said, “This is a bill that not only Nigeria, but our friends and investors in the petroleum sector have been waiting for us to put a framework that will ensure transparency and accountability, and create an enabling environment for the petroleum sector to stimulate growth in the sector.

Reacting to the passage of the bill, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, commended the 8th Senate and its Joint Committee on the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, PIGB, for the passage of PIGB 2016.

NUPENG and PENGASSAN, however, pleaded with the Senate to step up the passage of other aspects of the PIB. The two unions said: “This is, indeed, a milestone achievement, especially when you consider that the PIGB is not an Executive Bill.”

We, therefore, look forward to the concurrent passage of the PIGB into law by the Federal House of Representatives and also eventual accent by the President of Nigeria.

“We, however, note that the PIGB only deals with one aspect of the PIB, that is the governance and institutional framework of the Nigerian Petroleum industry.

We look forward to the passage of the other aspect of the PIB such as the Petroleum Fiscal Framework Bill; Petroleum Industry Downstream Administration Bill; Petroleum Industry Revenue Management Framework Bill and the Petroleum Host Community Bill.

“For instance, we know that there is no mention of the Petroleum Host Community Fund in the PIGB and we know that one of the major challenges facing the industry is host community and Niger Delta