BY BEN AGANDE

Abuja — The Federal Government has concluded plans to provide a legal framework to prevent anti-trade and monopolistic practices in the Nigerian economy.

Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who briefed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting, yesterday, said the the two reform bills presented by the President to the Council were the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014 and the Nigeria Postal Commission Bill.

According to the Minister, the bills are necessary to support transformation achievements recorded in the Nigerian economy in the past ten years.

The minister noted that a committee, headed by the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, had been enpanelled to further examine the bill before transmitting same to the National Assembly.

He said:  “The Nigerian economy has been undergoing fundamental reforms for the past ten years. These reforms have been aimed at achieving a transition from a state-dominated economy, where all the key sectors of the economy are dominated by government parastatals to transit into a market-driven economy that opens all sectors of economy to private sector competition.”

”Now in the course of these reforms, a number of government agencies and companies have been privatised in the last ten years or have been opened up for competition.

“The purpose of the reform is to ensure that where government has constituted a clog in the wheel of progress, particularly in key sectors, we opened them up to ensure increased private sector investments.”