The House of Representatives Tuesday passed through second reading a bill for an Act to repeal the Ministry of Finance Incorporated Act, 1959 and any amendments thereto, to enact the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (Establishment) Act, 2023 and for related matters.

The bill is sponsored by Ademorin Kuye (APC, Lagos).

While leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, Kuye lamented that MOFI had not performed optimally since it was established.

He noted, “The old Act of 1959 contains only six sections without the needed impetus for the corporation to assume its role in modern Nigeria.”

Kuye informed that “The new Act is introducing a comprehensive framework of 49 sections for the conduct, management, use and custodianship of Federal Government assets.”

According to him, the amendment “Will reinvigorate MOFI as it will provide the necessary institutional framework to guide its corporate governance and establish its organisational structure”.

Continuing, the lawmaker argued that if passed into law, the amendment “Will also ensure a strong legal backbone for the emergence of a truly national corporation that will manage, account for and optimise the use of over N300tn worth of federal government assets by granting MOFI certain powers and ensuring that the board is properly incentivised.”

Speaking further, the sponsor stated that the bill would increase revenue, block leakages and increase the value of the national assets portfolio.

He said “Currently, MOFI has only N18tn registered as the value of assets in the portfolio. As the bill proposes a national assets register, a comprehensive census of federal government assets, including holdings in multilateral agencies will increase this figure to an estimated N350tn, putting the economy in good standing.”

The bill was passed without objections and forwarded to the House Committee on Finance for further legislative action.