Nigeria Proposes Bills To Transform Transport Sector

Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council is to forward to the National Assembly four bills aimed at reforming the transport sector.

The resolution to submit the bill was reached at the end of Wednesday’s meeting of the council in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Discussions on the needed transformation in the transport sector dominated talks at the meeting, which also looked at the participation of the private sector in achieving the needed transformation.

The bills include the National Transport Commission Bill 2014, the Nigerian Railway Bill 2014, the Nigerian Ports and Harbour Bill 2014 and the National Inner Waterways Authority Bill.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, told reporters  that the bills, when passed, would aid in the movement of goods within the country, saying it would boost the nation’s economy.

He  said that at the meeting, the council members decried a situation where infrastructure in the public transportation system had been funded largely by the government, a situation they said had created bottlenecks in the sector over the years.

“The initiative would open up the the transport sector for competition and rapid development of the sector,” Mr Maku explained.

Mr Maku pointed out that the past three years had shown that the private sector had the capacity to transform the country, citing examples of the reforms in the telecoms and power sector.

The Council has set up a committee, headed by the Attorney General of the Federation, to further work out the bills before it would be forwarded to the National Assembly in two weeks’ time.