The Senate Committee on Trade, Industry and Investment has advised the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) to “vigorously push for the amendment” of its Act to tie all loose ends in its mandate of regulating the country’s free trade zone scheme without further delay.
According to a press statement issued Wednesday by the Authority’s head of corporate communications, Martins Odeh, the chairman of the Committee, Sen. Francis Fadahunsi, gave the advice during a routine oversight function to some free trade zones on Tuesday in Lagos.
Fadahunsi said the excavation of the perennial crisis between NEPZA and the Onne Oil and Gas Export Free Zone Authority (OGEFZA) must be put to rest, adding that the existing laws that established both agencies gave them distinct functions.
“Going by NEPZA Act 63 of 1992, the Authority is bestowed with the sole mandate of regulating Nigeria’s Free Trade Zone Scheme. NEPZA by this Act is a regulatory body. If the agency wanted to enlarge its powers to cover the entire country, the operators should also come up with a bill seeking amendment of the Act. OGEFZA has never been a regulatory body,” he said.
He, however, said OGEFZA was also a creation of the parliament in 1994 with a clear mandate to operate as a zone in the downstream sector in Onne and Okpokri in Rivers state.
On his part, the chairman of the NEPZA board, Alhaji Adamu Fanda, said the Authority would perform better if placed under the supervision of the presidency, adding that that was the position in all of the countries where the scheme had succeeded.
“The United Arab Emirate adopted this scheme in 1987 while Nigeria embraced it in 1992, leaving UAE to just be ahead of us with just five years. The UAE has used FTZ to attain inconceivable development strides but our case is different. The country’s free trade zone can only be successful like those of China and UAE if built on cost benefit analysis,” he said.
In his remarks, the NEPZA managing director, Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, said the Authority was working assiduously to ensure that the scheme was turned around to deliver the quantum of deliverables commensurate with the government investment in the sector.
