54 laws must be amended for business reform —Expert

Amidst the current economic crunch in the country, a team of consultants, under the auspices of Department for International Development, DFID, told the Senate yesterday that for Nigeria to be an investment destination, it must amend or repeal 54 of its existing laws.

According to the team of experts, they also did what they described as comprehensive analysis of 50 other bills pending before the two chambers of the National Assembly.

This came as Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, said the present economic challenge should be seen as a blessing in disguise, and that the situation presented an opportunity for Nigeria's leaders to show leadership, courage and ingenuity.

They spoke while presenting the 168-page report entitled Compre-hensive Review of the Institutional Regulatory, Legislative and Associa-ted Instruments Affecting Businesses in Nigeria.

Leader of the DFID team, Professor Paul Idonigie, stressed that the priority rating list would help the legislature to focus on some areas that required urgent intervention and recommended nine bills that if passed into law in the life of the 8th assembly, would have been deemed to have comprehensively reformed the business environment.

The bills recommended as requiring urgent attention include the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2015; Federal Roads Authority Bill 2015; National Inland Waterways Authority Bill 2015; National Roads Funds Bill 2015; National Transport Commission 2015; Nigerian Ports and Harbours Authority Bill 2015; Nigeria Postal Commission Bill 2015 and Nigeria Railway Authority Bill 2015. Vanguard