Postal Sector Bill, Others Ready Soon – BPE

Seven bills which have been pending since 2009, including bill on the postal sector reform would be ready soon, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now report.

Ms. Bolanle Onagoruwa, director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), said delays have been caused due to adherence on ‘due-process’ precedent.

She explained that in all, a total of seven pending reform bills were approved by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) in 2009 and sent to the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

“The FEC sent them back to the BPE/Hon. Attorney General of the Federation/Minister of Justice for fine-tuning and interfacing with line ministries. The process of fine-tuning and interfacing with line ministries has been concluded and all the bills are ready. The Legal Committee of the NCP is having a final look at them,” she said.

The seven reform Bills are the Railway Bill; Inland Waterways Bill; Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Bill; Postal Bill; Road Sector Reform Bill; National Transport Commission Bill; and Ports & Harbour Reform Bill.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek checks reveal that the seven reform Bills seeks to provide an enabling legal and regulatory framework for the reform sought     to be instituted; allow for private sector investment and participation in the various     sectors; provide a level playing field for all private sector entrants into the different sectors;

They also seek to reduce and ultimately eliminate the burden on government funding infrastructural development; provide assurance and comfort to investors on the viability of recovering their costs and having a reasonable return on their investments; and redirect funding by government to other key neglected areas of the economic life of the nation that are socially imperative such as health and education.