The Senate has passed the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act, (Amendment) Bill, 2017 after adopting the recommendations of its Committee on Niger Delta. The Bill seeks to amend certain provisions in the Principal Act to provide for prompt remittance of funds due to the Commission in addition to penalties for delay.

Presenting the report at the plenary session of Tuesday, 15 November 2017, Chairman of the Committee on Niger Delta, Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP: Delta) informed the Senate that the Committee had conducted a stakeholders meeting pertaining to the Bill with Members of the National Assembly from the Niger Delta region, Chairman and Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, representatives of Executive Governors and Traditional Rulers from the region.

Sen. Nwaoboshi highlighted the following contributions made by stakeholders at meeting:

1. That there should be a review of the Section 2(1)(b) of the Act to ensure that the person nominated to represent each state of the Commission on the governing board comes from an oil producing Local Government Area rather than an oil producing area as stipulated in the Act;
2. That there should be a review of Section 2(1)(e) and (f) to ensure that only Permanent Secretaries are eligible for appointment to represent the Ministries of Finance and Environment in the governing board;
3. That a new subsection should be inserted to Section 4 to ensure rotation of representation within the oil producing Local Government Areas of individual member States of the Commission;
4. That Section 5(3) of the Act should be reviewed for the purpose of regional representation;
5. That a new subsection be inserted in Subsection 14 of the Act to ensure compliance by Contributors who fund of the Commission;
6. That Section 14(2)(c) of the Act be amended to ensure that 50% contributions from the ecological fund of each member State is deducted from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting and paid directly to the Commission’s Account;
7. That the Director of Finance of the Commission should be allowed to participate at FAAC meetings; and;
8. That a new section be provided to ensure that monies realized from Value Added Tax (VAT) on payments for contracts awarded by the Commission is used to execute specific projects.

Sen. Nwabaoshi explained that during the stakeholders meeting, the Committee had observed that:

• The Act establishing the Niger Delta Development Commission which has been in operation for 17 years had never been reviewed; and
• As a result of certain provisional gaps in the Principal Act, most contributors had either not remitted funds to the Commission, under paid or declared their total annual budget resulting to huge debts owed by the Commission.

Following the views of Stakeholders, which were generally in support of the Bill’s passage, the Committee recommended as follows:

• That an amendment of the Principal Act is necessary in order to provide clarity to some of the Bill’s provisions;
• That provisions dealing with the representation of the Board of the Commission will be clearly defined by the amendments;
• That the financial burden of the Commission will be reduced if provisions on prompt remittances are made;
• That the failure of contributors to fulfil their statutory obligations will be addressed by the amendments to the Act; and;
• That an amendment to the Principal Act will remove obvious impediments in the area of funding. Consequently, this will aid to reposition the Commission in carrying out its mandate effectively.

Click here to view the full report of the Committee