Senate may revisit Petroleum Industry Bill

The Nigerian Senate is to revisit the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and the Investment and Securities Act (ISA), Bill.

Senator Ibikunle Amosun, representing Ogun Central Senatorial District and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Capital Market, gave the assurance during a visit to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos.

The committee, Amosun said, would unlock more funds from the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).

He expressed readiness to partner with all capital market stakeholders for enhanced market growth and development.

“We are going to revisit the PIB Bill soon even as we just passed the CAMA bill in the Senate and I am sure that the House of Representatives will do the same soon.

“We will also look into the ISA too but you need to come up with areas that you think we should fine tune.

“We have funds still locked down in the PFAs as we have about five per cent being used in Nigeria as opposed to the benchmark of 30 per cent, we will look into all of these,” he stated.

Amosun, however, assured investors of maximum protection of their investments in the nation’s capital market amidst widespread reports of the coronavirus.

He emphasized that the capital market had a role to play in rescuing the economy at this critical stage in the light of the COVID -19 pandemic which hit global markets.

“The capital market is a potent avenue for deepening our economy.

“We have always talked about diversification which is essential to growing the economy and that is why the capital market has to play a very significant role in that aspect.

“Let me reassure that we will create that enabling environment for investors as well as to eke out necessary policies to support the market and so we are urging investors not to press the panic button yet,” Amosun said.

On his part, Mr Oscar Onyema, NSE Chief Executive Officer, noted that the total market capitalization which included equities, fixed income and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) currently stood at N25 trillion.

“We are at about N25 trillion in total market capitalization which includes equities, fixed income and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) but at the equities side, we are at about N11 trillion.

“Just two or three weeks ago, we were close to N15 trillion but for the global rout and crashed oil prices, we have now lost about N3.2 trillion since the 9th of March,” Onyema said.