The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has welcomed President Muhammadu Buhari’s transmission of the much-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill 2020, to the National Assembly, saying it would provide the needed framework for reforms in the petroleum downstream sub-sector when passed into law.
Buhari has transmitted the bill proposing the creation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
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The President also proposed the scrapping of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) among others.
The APC in a statement on Monday, by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena said the development was in line with the Buhari administration’s change agenda for the country.
“No doubt, the PIB will provide necessary legal framework to the long-sought reforms and ongoing deregulation of the petroleum sector in the country,” the APC said.
The party added that “the President Buhari government has made solid commitments to re-channel saved national resources from the stopped fuel subsidy and deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector to other critical sectors such as infrastructure, health and education”
The APC also hailed the shelved nationwide strike following the federal government’s successful brokering of an agreement with the leaderships of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on the increase in electricity tariff and the price of fuel.