Senate passes Company and Allied Matters Amendment Bill

The Senate on Tuesday at the Committee of the Whole passed the Company and Allied Matters Amendment Bill, 2020.

The passage of the bill was sequel to consideration of clause-by-clause of the 861 clauses of the bill.

The piece of legislation was sponsored by Senate Leader, Sen. Yahaya Abdullahi (APC – Kebbi).

The bill, when signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, will address some areas of the law, hindering flow of investment in Nigeria.

According to the Senate Leader, the business landscape in Nigeria will be re-organised and liberated from heavy constraints of several provisions in the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990, responsible for obstructing modern business practices in the light of national and global business reforms.

The bill also seek to provide an efficient means of regulating businesses, minimise compliance burden of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), enhance transparency, shareholders’ engagement, and promote friendly business climate in Nigeria.

It will also address the seeming stagnancy and primitive methods of doing business in Nigeria, essentially to meet international best practice as well as promote ease of doing business in the country.

The introduction of model netting provisions in the bill as a means of mitigating credit risks, according to Abdullahi, would promote financial stability and investor confidence in the Nigerian Financial Sector, and increase investor confidence in the Nigerian Financial Sector as well as all sectors of the economy.

Similarly, economic impact of the provisions of the bill would ensure more business-friendly regulation for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The amendments to CAMA were also expected to have potentials to increase activities of MSMEs, with the overall effect of growing the Nigerian economy in the process, providing more jobs and guaranteeing economic stability.

Meanwhile, the Senate at plenary considered the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency Bill, 2020.

The bill, which was also sponsored by Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, was enacted as a decree of the military government in 1999.

According to the lawmaker, the Act took effect on May 26, 1999, and has remained in existence for over 20 years without undergoing review or amendment.

“Since the establishment of the agency under the Act, significant changes and developments have taken place in the industry that necessitates review and amendment of the Act so as to bring the provisions up-to-date with the operational requirements of the Agency and dictates of the aviation industry,” the lawmaker said.

“Also, the original text of NAMA Act as passed into law in 1999 had numerous misprints and errors that have resulted in ambiguities in certain provisions of the Act,” Abdullahi added.

The bill which scaled second reading on the floor was referred by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Aviation for further legislative work.