News Post

In order to ensure the efficient implementation of the 2017 budget, the Senate has approved $5.5 million External Borrowing plan of the Federal Government to finance the 2017 Appropriation Act and settle domestic debts. The approval followed the presentation of the Report of Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Debts led by Sen. Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central).

The loan if obtained, would be used to finance the deficit of the 2017 Budget. In fact, $2.5 billion of the said loan would be used to implement capital projects that include the construction of second runway for the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, second Niger Bridge in the South East, Lagos to Calabar, Lagos to Kano and Kaduna to Kano standard gauge rail lines. 

While, the remaining $3 billion of the loan would use to service domestic debts across the country. Most Senators that contributed to debate on the external loan approval supported its approval in order to move the country forward through meaningful projects that have direct bearing on the lives of the people. The $5.5 billion request was ultimately approved by the Senate through a voice vote.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the session noted that the National Assembly will continue to partner with the Executive arm of government on policies and programmes that would move the country forward. He urged government to critically monitor the nation’s foreign debt burden in order not to bequeath huge debt burden to the nation’s future leaders.

Similarly, the Upper Legislative Chamber has passed into law the Niger Delta Development Commission Amendment Bill, 2017 (S.B. 544), sponsored by Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi (Delta North). The passage of the Bill into law was sequel to the presentation of the legislation’s report by the Senate Committee on Niger Delta.

On receipt of the report, the Chamber resolved into the Committee of the Whole where clauses 1 – 6, short and long titles of the Bill were approved as recommended or amended. Thereafter the Bill was read the third time and passed.

Also, the Red Chamber has deliberated upon and passed two Motions that include:

1) Urgent need to investigate allegations of unremitted Stamp Duty Revenue running into trillion of Naira, sponsored by Sen. John Owan Enoh and 10 Co-sponsors.

Accordingly, the Senate noted that the Stamp Duty Act is one of the oldest and enduring laws in Nigeria since 1939 and that the application of Stamp Duties has institutionally been a significant revenue earner for both the Federal and State Governments since Independence, thus accounting for almost a quarter of the taxation resources annually.

Sen. Enoh added that the Senate is perturbed by the recent reports in the media that over N7 trillion Naira in Stamp Duties revenue from electronic cashless transactions remain unpaid to the Federation since 2015; and that the total volume of unremitted Stamp Duties fund is about N20 trillion.

The Senate is worried that the provision for Stamp Duty in the revenue framework of the nation’s annual budget for 2015, 2016 and 2017 has been N8.713 billion, N66.138 billion and N16.96 billion respectively despite the above report apprised the anti-stamp duties collection stance of the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) currently being accused of systematic diversion of huge revenue flow from the stamp duties collection on the electronic transfer receipt on online bank transactions. This necessitated the demand notice on all unremitted stamp duty. The Motion scaled through with two resolutions below:

i) Commend the tenacity and fortitude of the School of Banking Honours for bringing the issue of unremitted Stamp Duty revenues to public notice and insisting on probity of the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System.

ii) Mandate the Senate Committee on Finance, Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to investigate allegations of unremitted stamp duties revenue in the last five years and report its findings, observations and recommendations to the Senate not later than eight weeks from the date of this resolution.

2) The need for fair and equitable distribution of Federal Health Facilities in all Geo-Political Zones of the country in response to several demands, sponsored by  Sen. Mathew Urhoghide (Edo South).

According to the sponsor of the Motion, the Chamber noted in recent times, there had been numerous requests from Nigerians including legislators, stakeholders and the general public for the establishment of Federal Health Facilities in all Geo-Political Zones of the country to provide health care services among other things. The Motion sailed through two prayers below:

i) Mandate the Senate Joint Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary) and Primary Healthcare and Communicable Diseases to catalogue all existing Health Facilities reflecting their location, size and nature of services rendered, years of construction, present condition and other challenges to form part of Health Sector Information Bank to date.

ii) Refer all request or demands by legislators and other stakeholders for the citing of Federal Health Facilities where they do not already exist, to the Joint Committee with the intent and purposes of correcting the imbalance in the distribution of Federal Health Facilities across Local Government Areas, States and Geo-Political Zones.