LAST week, Thursday July 1, the Senate finally passed the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB. A milestone in the history of our legislative affairs. Too many interests had repeatedly scuttled it over the years. According to the auditing and advisory firm, KPMG, previous attempts in 2009, 2012 and 2018 failed “because of factors such as lack of ownership, misalignment of interests between the National Assembly and the Executive, perceived erosion of ministerial powers, stiff opposition by the petroleum host communities and push back by investors on the perceived uncompetitive provisions in those versions of the bill”. Prolonged uncertainty had humongous costs in lost income and foregone investments. According to an industry source, of the $70 billion of FDI that went into the oil and gas sector in Africa between 2015 and 2019, a mere four per cent came to Nigeria — despite the fact that Nigeria remains the largest […]