JUST IN: Senate Passes CAMA Bill

The Senate on Tuesday passed the Companies and Allied Matters Act Bill.

The passage of the Bill titled: “Companies and Allied Matters Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2020” followed its consideration in a Committee of the Whole by the upper chamber.

The Bill was sponsored by the Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North).

According to the Senate Leader, the business landscape in Nigerian will be reorganized and liberated from the heavy constraints of several provisions in the CAMA.

He said that the defects in the Bill are obstructing modern business practices in the light of national and global business reforms.

He said that the Bill also seeks to provide an efficient means of regulating businesses and minimize the compliance burden of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

He said it would enhance transparency and shareholder engagement, and promote a friendly business climate in Nigeria.

According to him, the Bill will also address the seeming stagnancy and primitive methods of doing business in Nigeria.

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 Financial Sector.

He said it would also increase investors’ confidence in the 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), he said.

He insisted that the amendment to CAMA is also expected to increase activities of MSMEs and grow the Nigerian economy.

The Bill, when signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, he added, will help to boost investment in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday considered the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency Bill, 2020.

The bill, which was also sponsored by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, was enacted in Nigeria 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 twenty years without undergoing any review and 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 the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Aviation for further legislative work.