Both the Red and Green chambers will pass the harmonised 2024 budget as prepared by the National Assembly at their respective sittings.

In a statement by the Clerk to the Senate, Chinedu Akubueze, made available to newsmen on Saturday morning, said the plenary will now be held at 1 pm prompt.

Akabueze said, “This is to kindly inform Distinguished Senators that the plenary sitting of the Senate,  scheduled for Saturday, December 30th, 2023, will be held by 1 pm prompt.”

Similarly, the Clerk to the House of Representatives, Dr. Yahaya Danzaria corroborated his colleague at the Senate announcing that members would also sit by 1 pm on Saturday.

His statement read, “Good morning. Please note that today’s  plenary – 30th December 2023 – has been shifted upwards from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.”

Earlier, the Senate leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, said that all federal lawmakers would have to cut short their holidays to ensure speedy passage of the 2024 appropriations bill.

Providing further updates on the 2024 appropriation bill, the senate leader assured Nigerians that the National Assembly would pass the budget on December 30.

He said, “To ensure the passage of the budget,  We abridged time to make all ministries, departments and agencies appear before the joint sitting of all the relevant committees of both the Senate and House of Representatives.

“This has already reduced the time for the budget defence process by half rather than appearing before the Senate first and House of Representatives later. The resolution has also removed the need for harmonisation. In essence, we have been able to save time.

“We have also been sitting beyond our regular sitting days. We have sat on Saturdays. We may even sit on Sunday as we are approaching another year. We only give ourselves three days to go home and celebrate Christmas.”

“We are reconvening on December 29. Our hope and determination is to pass by December 30. On January 1, 2024, Mr President will have the 2024 appropriation bill at his desk for assent so that its implementation can take off in earnest,” Bamidele explained.

Earlier, the protesters led by the leaders of the Organised Labour, Joe Ajaero of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Festus Osifo of the Trade Union Congress asked security operatives stationed at the legislative building to open the gates to allow the angry workers to express their displeasure.

Following the failure of the security officials to adhere, angry protesters pulled down the gates and thronged into the assembly complex to vent their anger

The Investment and Securities Service Bill 2023 finally scaled through the final hurdle of the National Assembly when the Senate passed it on March 29. The bill, which is expected to aid the functioning of the capital market and facilitate the ongoing economic diversification in the country, had been passed by the House of Representatives in December. It is only awaiting presidential assent to below a law.

At the plenary, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, stated that the bill is expected to protect investors, adequately regulate the market, reduce systemic risks as well as provide for more stringent punishment for operators of Ponzi schemes.

He said, “The bill for an act to repeal the Investments and Securities Act 2007 Act No. 29 2007 and enact the Investments and Securities Bill 2023 to service the SEC as the apex regulatory authority for the Nigerian capital market as well as regulation of the market to ensure capital formation, to protect investors, maintain fair, efficient and transparent market and reduction of systemic risk and for related matters is hereby passed.”

Speaking as of the time the House of Representatives passed the bill, the Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Markets and Institutions, Babangida Ibrahim, stated that the ISB 2023 was capable of transforming the capital market, attracting foreign investors as well as boosting investors’ confidence, among others.

Ibrahim said, “The bill seeks to repeal the existing Investments and Securities Act 2007 and to establish a new market infrastructure and wide-ranging system of regulation of investments and securities businesses in Nigeria, especially in the areas of derivatives, systematic risk management, financial market infrastructure and Ponzi scheme and platforms.”

One of the developments that the new bill brings is the prohibition of Ponzi/Pyramid schemes, which have led to the loss of billions of naira on the part of victims and also affected confidence in the investment climate in Nigeria.

The passed bill prohibits Ponzi/pyramid schemes as well as other illegal investment schemes and prescribes a jail term of not less than 10 years for promoters of such schemes.

Ponzi schemes, also known as pyramid sales schemes, are a money laundering system where investors are lured in with the promise of high returns on investment after a specified period. The system runs in a somewhat cyclic fashion by paying old investors with deposits of new investors. Usually, this cycle becomes unsustainable when the backlog of old investors eligible for payments exceeds the investments coming into the system.

According to Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, three million Nigerians lost N18bn when the popular Ponzi scheme, Mavrodi Mundial Movement aka MMM, crashed in 2016. As of 2022, Nigerians have lost over N300bn in Ponzi schemes in five years, according to a report generated by the Norrenberger Financial Investments scheme.

The promoters of a popular investment scheme, Ovaioza Farm Produce Storage Business Limited, are facing prosecution for luring members of the public to an unregistered collective investment scheme. The promoters, Imu Yunusa and Goodness Omeiza have been accused of defrauding their victims up to N2bn.

Reacting to the introduction of the prohibition of Ponzi schemes, Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Stockbrokers, Mr Rotimi Fakayejo, said that the move was long overdue and a welcome idea.

He said, “I remember very well, this Ponzi scheme that got a lot of people in trouble, MMM. In the end, it is not just about people losing money. It is the disinterestedness in investing. First, they invested in the wrong window and ultimately, they will not invest again.

“Some foolishly and gullibly invested in it and some because of ignorance entered into it and others because of greed. Those who entered into it because of greed know what they were doing, they are just greedy. But the ones who get into it ignorantly, not knowing that such schemes are not authorised by the SEC are the ones who may never enter into any viable or regulated investment window again. Every economy needs investment, for money to be revolving through profitable channels.”

Fakayejo also argued that both those who get involved in Ponzi schemes and their promoters should be punished, albeit, the sanctions would be different.

He said, “The person who goes into it should get a small punishment and the person that starts the scheme should get a huge penalty. For anything, you are supposed to make findings.”

Regarding the proposed jail term of not less than 10 years, Fakayejo stated that the inclusion of asset forfeiture and also a fine of 10-20 per cent of the amount of money collected from victims may not be a bad idea.

Expressing a divergent opinion on the Ponzi scheme prohibition, the National Chairman of the Progressives Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Boniface Okezie, stated that Ponzi schemes have been embraced in other places.

“The Ponzi scheme has worked elsewhere; people have embraced it but the Nigerian market has not embraced it and SEC said that it is not known to them and that it is a scam and so they cannot allow Nigerians to patronize it.”

Okezie also accused the National Assembly of copying foreign laws that may have little or no impact on the Nigerian scene and doubted that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) would sign the bill before the expiration of his tenure next month.

The PSAN boss said, “I do not think the outgoing president will assent to that bill before he leaves office on May 29 because previous bills sent to him, it took him time to assent, not to talk of now that he is going for retirement.”

Speaking on some highlights of the bill in a statement released after the Senate passed the bill, the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lamido Yuguda, said that a recommendation was made in the bill for the inclusion of the National Pension Commission on the SEC board for increased collaboration between the two agencies, particularly to encourage greater investment of pension funds and in capital market products/instruments.

This is a welcome development, according to stakeholders, given the visible role that pension funds play in the capital market already.

Capital market operator, Fakayejo, said that Pencom having a seat on the board of SEC was long overdue.

He said, “The pension funds have been a major investor in the capital market. Look at all the major instruments, either bonds or equities, commercial papers, at the different classes of bonds, whichever way you want to look at it, the pension funds are the largest investors. So, I believe they should have a say in how the market is being regulated.”

Okezie also agreed, saying that the pension funds had been a major player in the capital market.

He said, “The Pension Fund has contributed to a large extent to what are seeing today of the rallying in the capital market. If they are investing in the SEC-regulated market, they should be mindful of where they invest their money so that their money does not get trapped when they need to pay those retirees.”

Commenting on the bill being able to boost investors’ confidence and attract foreign investments like the Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Markets and Institutions, had boasted, Fakayejo, pointed out that the reasons foreign investors left and are leaving are still very much around.

He said the unstable exchange rate was a major deterrent for foreign investors.

“I don’t see anything in the bill that is a plus for foreign portfolio investment. You and I know that the reason they are not here or why they have taken away their money is the instability of the naira. That has been the basic reason they (FPIs) are not here.”

Professor Olawale Ajai of the Lagos Business School also agreed that the country’s business environment has not been investment-friendly.

Ajai said, “Insecurity and the opaque naira foreign exchange regime have not helped in recent times, in spite of strenuous efforts on ‘doing business reforms.’”

Others highlights of the bill include the expansion of the categories of issuers as a key step towards the introduction of innovations and offerings such as crowd-funding as well as the facilitation of “commercial and investment business activities”, subject to the approval of the commission and other stipulated controls.

The bill also expands the definition of a Collective Investment Scheme to include schemes offered privately to qualified investors, and contains an entirely new part which regulates Commodity Exchanges and Warehouse Receipts.

The SEC DG said that the new parts of the bill “are essential for developing the entire gamut of the Commodities ecosystem”.

According to him, a new part on the management of systemic risk has been introduced, covering the following themes: monitoring, management and mitigation of systemic risk in the Nigerian capital market; arrangements with other regulators relating to information required from entities that are regulated by other regulators; sharing of information between financial sector regulatory authorities or government agencies; and use of a legal entity identifier to provide for proper monitoring of systemic risks.

The bill classifies securities Exchanges into composite exchanges and non-composite exchanges. A composite exchange is one in which all categories of securities and products can be listed and traded. In contrast, a non-composite exchange focuses on a singular type of security or product.

Furthermore, the duties/responsibilities of exchanges have been expanded, and the conditions for revocation of registration clearly stated. There are also new provisions on Financial Market Infrastructures such as Central Counter Parties, Clearing Houses, Trade Depositories, etc.

As part of efforts geared towards addressing funding challenges in the country’s tertiary institutions of learning, the National Assembly recently passed the Student Loan Bill, which has faced much criticism, into law.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, cautioned against the condemnation of the Student Loan Bank being proposed through the Student Loan Bill.

The bill, which was sponsored by Gbajabiamila, was titled ‘A Bill for an Act to provide for easy access to higher education for Nigerians through an interest-free loan from the Nigerian Education Bank established in this Act to provide education for Nigerians and other purposes connected thereto.’

The bill seeks the establishment of the Nigerian Education Bank, which will have the powers to administer, coordinate, supervise and monitor the management of student loans in the country.

It will also receive applications for student loans through higher institutions in Nigeria on behalf of the applicants and screen the applications to ensure that all requirements for the grant of such loans under the Act are satisfied.

Also, the bank shall have the powers to approve and disburse to qualified applicants and ensure compliance in respect of disbursement, and monitor academic records of grantees to obtain information on their year of graduation, national service, and employment to ensure that grantees of the loan commence repayment as at when due, among other functions.

According to the Act, all students seeking higher education in public institutions of higher learning in Nigeria shall have an equal right to access the loan without any discrimination arising from gender, religion, tribe, position or disability.

On the repayment plan, the bill recommends that “Any beneficiary of the loan to which this Act refers shall commence repayment two years after completion of the National Youth Service Corps programme.”

It also recommended that repayment shall be by direct deduction of 10 per cent of the beneficiaries’ salary at source by the employer and credited to the students’ loan account to be prescribed by the bank.

“Where the beneficiary is self-employed, he shall remit 10% of his total profit monthly to the student loan account to be prescribed by the bank.

For the purpose of sub-section 3 above, a self-employed person shall, within 60 days of assuming that status, submit all information such as the name of business, address and location, registration documents, registered, name of bankers, names of partners, name of directors and shareholders to the Commission.

“Anyone in default of the provisions of sub-section 4 above or

found to be aiding the default of any of the provisions of this Act is guilty of an offence and if convicted shall be liable to imprisonment for two years or a fine of N500,000 or both.”

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, had at various times during the week indicated that the Federal Government budget would be passed on Thursday when the lawmakers were expected to embark on Christmas and New Year break.

However, our correspondent observed that the House Committee on Appropriations will not lay its report on the money bill on Thursday.

The laying of the report was not listed on the Order Paper for the day.

Several lawmakers blamed the delay on the 2022 Finance Bill and Supplementary Appropriation Bill recently transmitted to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.

President Buhari had only on Wednesday transmitted the Finance Bill, while the supplementary budget was received by the parliament on Thursday.

With the development, there is uncertainty over the maintenance of the January-December budget cycle, which the current 9th National Assembly restored three years ago.

After the National Assembly passes and transmits the budget back to the Executive, the relevant ministries, especially the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, usually scrutinise the content before the president signs it into law, a process that sometimes takes weeks.

The Bill was approved at the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

At the meeting on Wednesday, the council resolved that NSIP should be backed by legislation to ensure its continuity and sustainability.

The  Bill seeks to establish the National Social Investment Programme Agency for the management and implementation of the National Social Investment Prorgrammes.

The Bill if enacted will provide the necessary statutory backing for the existing NSIP under the FMHADMSD.

In her presentation to the Council, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouq described NSIP as a reliable tool for solving poverty problems in Nigeria.

“NSIP serves as an enduring legacy of this administration and is necessary to be backed by legislation at this time. Thus, the urgent need for Council to approve the NSIP Bill which seeks to provide statutory backing as conceptualized and established by this Administration.

“The NSIP is directly and indirectly impacting the lives of poor Nigerians through its four cluster programmes namely: the N-POWER Programme, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) and the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCT). These programmes are designed to serve as various forms of social safety nets specifically targeting those at the bottom of the social ladder or those who require some form of support to enable them to become productive members of the society and finally prevent more people from falling below the poverty line.

“The submission is to create the National Social Investment Programme as an agency, in line with Mr President’s agenda to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by the year 2030”.

NSIP will be implemented in full partnership with all the 36 State Governments and the FCT while Council also approved acceptable source of funding for NSIP through a budgetary allocation and 5% of recovered and repatriated funds .

The Bill will now be sent to the National Assembly for legislation and passage to law

This was according to an investigation by The PUNCH released on Monday morning.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union have, however, warned the government against the establishment of new institutions while failing to fund the existing ones.

According to the reports, Nigeria has a total of 49 federal universities. The official data from the National Universities Commission also revealed that the country has 59 state universities and 111 private universities.

The National Board for Technical Education also puts the number of Federal Polytechnics at 40; state owned at 49 and private at 76.

While a total of Federal and state owned colleges of health is 70; Nigeria currently has 17 private colleges of health.

Also, the National Commission for Colleges of Education put the total number of colleges of education in Nigeria at 219.

An analysis of the 63 bills on creation of new institutions being considered by both the Senate and the House of Representatives revealed that 26 bills are for federal universities; 33 bills for federal colleges of education; agriculture; health; technology; and forestry among other specialised colleges.

The lawmakers also proposed four bills for the creation of new polytechnics.

However, a professor at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, Victor Olumekun, in an interview with The PUNCH, faulted the lawmakers for turning the establishment of new institutions into constituency projects.

Olumekun said, “I say it often that it is not the number of universities that we have that matter but the capacity to do what universities are supposed to be doing.

“As an academia, we don’t have to establish universities in every town, village and hamlet. University education is not about number, it is about capacity.”

The National President of ASUP, Dr. Anderson Ezeibe, said the move showed a clear lack of direction.

“We have continued to maintain that government should fund existing institutions to enable them meet their mandates.

“Passing bills for new institutions at this time is for political convenience and not in the public interest,” he argued.

The General Secretary, COEASU, Dr Ahmed Bazza, also faulted the development.

He said, “There is shortage of lecturers in all tertiary institutions because the system has made it so harsh that there is high level of brain drain in the system. We are trying to cope with that and also trying to cope with the funding and facilities.

“Then someone will just wake up for political reasons and say he is proposing a bill to establish a new university. That is not fair to the system honestly.

The Programme Director, Reform Education Nigeria, Ayodamola Oluwatoyin, also accused the lawmakers of trying to score political goals.

Oluwatoyin said, “It is so unfortunate that we live in a country where lawmakers use matters like education to score cheap political goals, this is unheard of in any part of the world.

“How will you propose new bills for new institutions when the existing ones are on shutdown? Who advises these individuals?”

The lawmakers are resuming plenary after a series of resumption postponements over the primaries held by political parties to select candidates for the 2023 general elections.

The National Assembly workers had last week shut down the premises of the parliament, blocking the main entrance and cutting water and power supplies to the buildings, as they pressed home their demands for the payment of some allowances among other demands.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had on Friday, in a meeting with management and workers of the National Assembly, appealed to the striking workers to call off their industrial action and instead, embrace dialogue for the speedy resolution of the disputes.

But the Public Relations Officer of PASAN, Amos Enobong, told The PUNCH on Monday that the strike would continue despite Lawan’s intervention.

He said, “The strike is still ongoing, we are yet to call it off. We met with the Senate President and they made their offer, it is left for us to accept or reject it.

“We are having a congress early tomorrow (Tuesday). We will present the offer to the congress and whatever is agreed upon would be the determinant if we are to continue with the strike or not. But as it stands now, we haven’t called off the strike.”

When contacted, the Senate spokesperson, Ajibola Bashir, said he could not say if the plenary would resume or not as nothing has been said otherwise about the resumption date.

He said, “On the strike, I don’t have much to say. I think that can be answered by the management of the National Assembly. I am not part of the management and you know there is a difference between senators and management. Management is headed by the Clerk of the National Assembly. We are elected representatives in that place.

“We hope that the management will meet the workers and possibly resolve the matter ahead of our new assumption date of June 14. But I believe that there is a need for dialogue and ensure that whatever could be done to ensure that those demands are addressed is done.”

One of our correspondents, however, sighted a notice from the leadership of PASAN to members, asking them to gather at the gate to the National Assembly complex for a congress in the early hours of Tuesday (today).

While Senate plenary starts at 10am and House’s starts at 11am, the workers changed the time for their congress from 10am to 7am.

The notice titled ‘Slight change on joint congress time,’  read, “This is to notify all PASAN members that the joint emergency congress of the NASS/NASC Chapters earlier scheduled to hold by 10am has been rescheduled to hold as follows: Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2022. Venue: National Assembly gate. Time:  7am prompt. Aluta Continua! Victoria Ascerta! Signed: Joint Chapter Chairmen.”

Sources in PASAN disclosed to The PUNCH on Monday that the outcome of the congress would determine whether to suspend the shutdown for legislative duties or continue the protests.

The Special Adviser on Media and Labour to the Clerk to the National Assembly, Austen Adesoro, said the management was making effort to resolve the strike issues and that plenary would hold as scheduled.

The workers embarked on the strike action last Monday, thereby crippling activities at the National Assembly for a week.

The Chairman, PASAN, National Assembly chapter, Sunday Sabiyi, who addressed the members at the gate on Tuesday said the strike would be suspended till further notice.

He said, “Our National President has spoken and we have heard, they said by July, we would get approval and complete the implementation and the allowances would be paid by the end of June.

“The Senate President said after the allowances have been paid by June ending, he would call for a town hall meeting. If he doesn’t call for the town hall meeting, we will call for another strike action.

“For this reason, we have suspended the strike action for now. So, everybody should go and rest, have your bathe and resume the day’s activities.”

They insisted that all they wanted was credit alerts on their phones.

The workers under, the auspices of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, said they wouldn’t call off the strike or engage in any conversation with the management of the national assembly until they received payment of the arrears of their unpaid salaries and allowances.

The workers, who blocked the gate of the National Assembly complex refused to listen to the Secretary,  Human Resources and Staff Development of the National Assembly, Suraj Oladoyin, who came to address them on behalf of the National Assembly clerk, Amos Ojo.

Oladoyin tried to persuade the angry protesters about the need to sit at a table and discuss but they replied him with an uproar chanting, ” All we want are credit alerts,  we are tired of talking.”

The chairman of PASSAN,  Sunday Sabiyi, who tried to bring some calm to the situation, said the executives were also tired of the back and forth over the issue. However, it was expedient that they listened to the voice of reasoning.

Sabiyi said, “We are all in this together and even the management would benefit from it. In fact, when the money is paid, they would get more money than us. You cannot be more tired than the executives of the association. We have been on this issue for over three years. And this time, our request must be granted but we have to listen to them and have a dialogue.

There must be room for negotiations in every agitation, so we would meet with them ( the management of NASS) and hear what they have to say.”

The Punch learnt that the protesters who had arrived at the National Assembly gate at 6 am, are still there as the time of filing this report at 23m, therefore crippling all activities at the national assembly.

It was observed that no member of staff was allowed into the building and those who were not aware or interested in the planned protest, were turned back at the gate.

It was gathered that the water and the electricity at the NASS complex have also been disconnected.