The Senate has passed for second reading a bill that seeks to amend the Oil and Gas Export Free Zone Authority Act for greater effectiveness and efficiency.
The bill, which was subsequently referred to the Committee on Trade and Establishment for further legislative work, was sponsored by Senator Odion Ugbesia.
It seeks to introduce the right of workers in the zones to join trade unions and bargain collectively, which the principal Act curtailed at the inception of the free zones.
The Senate has passed for second reading a bill that seeks to amend the Oil and Gas Export Free Zone Authority Act for greater effectiveness and efficiency.
The bill, which was subsequently referred to the Committee on Trade and Establishment for further legislative work, was sponsored by Senator Odion Ugbesia.
It seeks to introduce the right of workers in the zones to join trade unions and bargain collectively, which the principal Act curtailed at the inception of the free zones.
Ugbesia noted that free zones all over the world were instrumental in boosting industrial and economic growth.
He said it was in recognition of this that made the Federal Government to establish the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone.
The senator said the free zones had all along been providing greater level of foreign direct investment, technology transfer, manpower development, provision of employment opportunities and greater economic self reliance.
“Our free trade zones are far from achieving the purpose for which they were established and there are serious doubts as to whether Nigeria has indeed benefitted from the Onne Oil a and Gas Free Zone beyond the benefit accruable to an industrial area, which is the result of weak regulatory framework guiding the operations of free zones in Nigeria,” he said.
The lawmaker explained that the most attractive feature of a free zone anywhere in the world was the tax holiday, which investors enjoyed as incentive and encouragement for investment, which the amendment to the Act would provide.
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