ABUJA — President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and his colleagues in both chambers of the the National Assembly were, yesterday, informed by a team of consultants under the auspices of the Department for International Development, DFID, that 54 of the country’s existing laws have to be either amended or repealed, if the country must make progress in its quest to attract investors and become business friendly.

Saraki

The experts spoke while presenting a 168-page report entitled “Comprehensive Review of the Institutional Regulatory, Legislative and Associated Instruments Affecting Businesses in Nigeria.”

This came as Saraki said the present economic challenges facing the country presented an opportunity for its leaders to show leadership, courage and ingenuity.

The Senate President said the nation should use the present economic situation to set the stage for a post-oil era in which the private sector will steer the ship of the economy, while government provides the enabling environment.

He said: “The National Assembly, through our legislative agenda, seized on the moment to chart a new course for the nation’s economy. The legislative agenda we have adopted is one framed largely around good governance, accountability, opening up of the economy for greater investment, ease of doing business and security of lives and property.”

He added that the 8th National Assembly would give priority to the amendment of obsolete laws, adding that since some of the affected laws required constitution amendment, the planned process would be expedited to ensure that all stakeholders concerned made the changes happen as soon as possible.

Saraki said the collaboration with the private sectors, development partners, professional groups as Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) as well as the academia in the on-going process to review laws affecting doing business, will give birth to a new business environment that will boost the economy, solve the problem of unemployment, curb social vices and restore our national values and pride.

He stressed that the Senate and the House of Representatives were on the same page with President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy on diversification of economy.

He said: “Our President has laid out a vision to fully diversify the economy beyond oil and has been committed to the actualization of the project.

“The overarching objective of the agenda targets private sector investment and business development as a major plank of the plan. This is because of our belief in the ingenuity, creativity, entrepreneurship of our people and that in order to create jobs, give our people better opportunities, the private sector remains our best option.”

The leader of the team of experts sponsored by DFID, Prof. Paul Idornigie, said apart from 54 laws reviewed, they also did a comprehensive analysis of 50 other bills pending before the two chambers of the National Assembly.