By Femi Ogunshola
A BILL for an Act to reapeal the ministry of Finance Incorporated Act 1959 and to renact the establishment Act 2023 has passed second reading in the House of Representatives
The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Ademorin Kuye (APC-Lagos), was read for the second time during plenary in Abuja on Tuesday.
Debating on the general principle of the bill, Kuye said the bill was designed to ensure effective ownership and accountability in the use, custodianship, and management of federal government assets.
According to him, the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoFI) was established in 1959 by an act of parliament to serve as the sole custodian of federal government assets throughout the Federation.
“However, MoFI, since its establishment, has not operated as it should be given the pillage, brigandage, abandonment, diversion, misappropriation, and abuse of federal assets throughout the country”.
He said, “the old Act of 1959 contains only six sections without the needed impetus for the corporation to assume its role in modern Nigeria.
He added that the new act would introduce a comprehensive framework of 49 sections for the conduct, management, use, and custodianship of federal government assets.
He said that the objective of the bill, when passed into law, would reinvigorate MOFI, adding that it would provide the necessary institutional framework
This, according to him, is to guide its corporate governance and establish its organisational structure.
“It will also ensure strong legal backbone for the emergence of a truly national corporation that will manage, account for and optimize the use of over N300 trillion worth of Federal Government Assets
This, according to him, is by granting MoFI certain powers and ensuring that the board is properly incentivised.
He said that with the proposed corporate governance structure and powers, MoFI would attract the best of investments in assets.
This, he said, would ensure the turnaround of redundant federal government assets and the needed footprints in the global business landscape.
He said “the Ministry of Finance Incorporated Bill 2024 is an essential legislative framework that will institutionalise and empower the corporation.”
This, he said, would provide the needed economic stimulus for growth through the effective and efficient use and management of federal government assets.
He said that this was to act as a check against abandonment, redundancy, and misappropriation of these assets.
“My distinguished colleagues, I urge you to support this bill for the exponential growth of the nation’s economy.”
The speaker, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas, passed the bill for second reading after it was unanimously passed by the lawmakers. (NAN)
