PIGB: Nigeria’s 8th Assembly on cusp of history

The House of Representatives has passed the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), which aims to increase transparency and stimulate growth in the country’s oil industry. The bill was broken up into sections to make it easier to push through. The version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives is the same as one approved by the Senate last year. This is the first time both chambers approved the same version of the bill.

The passage moves the 8th Assembly to the cusp of history with the industry bill on the edge of turning into law after a 17 year struggle, though, it still needs the president’s signature to become law.

“The PIGB, as passed is the same as passed by the Senate. We have harmonised everything and formed the National Assembly Joint Committee on PIB. Every consideration of the bill is now under the joint committee. We have broken the jinx after 17 years. We are working on the other accompanying bills,” Alhassan Ado Doguwa, a member of House of Representatives said.

The speaker for the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara said that “the new legislation will be transmitted to the President within the next few days,” adding that the state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would be unbundled as a result of the legislation going through.

Senate President Bukola Saraki said in a statement that the bill will “promote openness and transparency in the industry by clarifying the rules, processes, and procedures that govern the oil and gas sector”.

“After nearly two decades of back-and-forth, near-misses and ‘near-passages’, the 8th National Assembly finally reached a milestone,” Saraki said.

The governance section deals with management of the NNPC. The National Assembly Joint Committee is working on two more bills as part of the PIB.

The PIGB would create four new entities whose powers would include the ability to conduct bid rounds, award exploration licences and make recommendations to the oil minister on upstream licences. Delays in passing the bill created uncertainty in the oil and gas sector which has been estimated to have cost Nigeria about $15 billion a year in lost investment, according to the Petroleum Ministry.

FRANK UZUEGBUNAM