In the face of recession and the attendant economic hardship in the
country, President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking emergency powers to
reflate the economy. The emergency powers are to last for one year.
According to sources president will submit
an executive bill to the National Assembly this week for consideration,
although the legislature is on break.
The bill, titled: Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016, is in
three parts: Objectives and application; Timeliness, thresholds and
other limitations; and miscellaneous.
In the bill, the president wants to carry out radical reforms that
have both executive and legislative components. The executive orders
will involve issuance of visas, registration of businesses, granting of
waivers, process of tendering and sales of non-core assets.
The emergency powers that have the legislative components include the
Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, procurement process
and virement of budget allocations.
The objectives of the emergency powers are to reflate the economy by
creating more jobs, boost foreign reserves, ensure inflow of foreign
exchange, strengthens the naira, resuscitate the manufacturing sector
and get contractors back to site.
A source in the Presidency confirmed that the
radical reforms are in the executive bill, which will be tabled before
the National Assembly this week. According to the source, “the president
is worried about the state of the economy and attendant hardship in the
country.
And to tackle some of the challenges, President Buhari is seeking for
emergency powers to carry out radical reforms in the polity. “Buhari
must respond frontally to the challenges of recession. He can’t do it
under the extant conditions.
He is now seeking powers to enable him roll out some economic
packages. “In three days’ time, Buhari will be seeking from the National
Assembly powers to amend procurement process in order to support
stimulus spending in critical sectors; he is seeking power to favour
local suppliers/contractors in contract awards.”
In the area of budgeting, Buhari plans to issue executive orders to
allow virement of budgetary allocations of projects within Ministries,
Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that are of topmost priority.
The source said that the president is concerned about the delay in
the procurement process, which takes more than six months. Hence, Buhari
is seeking the suspension of Section 34(3) of the Public Procurement
Act.
This, according to sources, is to ensure that the administrative
encumbrances in the procurement process and award of contracts are done
away with. The president is also considering sales of noncore assets to
raise money.
“Nigeria has a lot of noncore assets that can be sold to reflate the
economy. But the process to lease or sell the assets will take one year.
So, the president wants to fast track the pro-He believes that there is
no need keeping those assets if the nation can generate over $50
billion through lease and sales,” The president is seeking reforms in the issuance of visas.
It was learnt that Buhari is proposing two approaches to issuance of
visa. One is visa on arrival while the second one is to ensure that
henceforth, tourist and business visas are issued within 48 hours at all
the consular offices of Nigeria.
In the bill, the president is seeking powers to give contractors 50
per cent mobilisation fees unlike 15 per cent obtainable today. “The 15
per cent is grossly inadequate.
This is why most projects are abandoned because the 15 per cent the
contractors get is not enough to substantially execute projects,” an
aide of the president said. Buhari is also seeking the nod of the
National Assembly to amend the UBEC Act so as to free the N58 billion
trapped in the Fund as a result of the inability of the states to pay 50
per cent counterpart funding.
The president wants an amendment to the Section 11(2) of the UBEC
Act. “Today, N58 billion is trapped in UBEC Fund. The law states that
states must pay 50 per cent counterpart funding. Unfortunately, many
states can’t pay because of their financial situation. You know payment
of workers’ salaries is a big issue for most of the states.
“So, the president will be seeking amendment to the UBEC Act which
manufacturmandates the states to commit 50 per cent of the counterpart
fund. With the proposed amendment, the states will only be required to
contribute 10 per cent instead of 50 per cent,” the source said.
Buhari is seeking powers for radical reforms of the business climate.
This involves powers to prepare agencies to respond promptly to licence
registration. This will allow entrepreneurs to apply for registration
and get approval within seven days.
Failure of which, the applicant is deemed licenced after seven days
without hearing from the agencies such as the National Agency for Food
and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC). Also, any staff that failed to respond promptly to the
applications will be punished.
The government is planning to ensure ease of doing business by
improving/ harmonising airport processes. That is harmonising the
functions of Immigration, Customs and Department of State Services (DSS)
at the airports.
The emergency powers will also entail the president authorising the
use of barges to supply gas to power plants. “Though this approach is
costlier than using pipeline, but this is to ensure that the power
plants are not short of gas. So, the president will authorise the use of
barges to supply gas to the power plants,” a source familiar with the
programme said.
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