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BLUE UPDATE

SENATE TO SUMMON FINANCE MINISTER AS MASSIVE JOB LOSS LOOMS IN NIGERIA.

The Nigeria Senate has said that it is already planning a comprehensive legislative intervention that will ensure that workers in the private sector do not suffer job losses as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

The upper chamber, however, promised to unfold its agenda after a robust engagement with the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to know the specific plans by government to prevent private firms from collapsing.

It appreciated the moves by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bankers Committee to save the jobs of workers in the banking industry.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, gave the explanation in an interview with Sunday PUNCH.

He said,

“We are planning to invite the Minister of Finance to find out additional measures already put in place to ensure that workers in Nigeria are not laid off. This will guide our line of thought on how we could come up with legislative interventions that can protect the jobs of Nigerians.

“As we all know, the executive arm of government is already trying its best, within the confines of the law. What we, as a legislature, can do is to still liaise with the executive because if we make any pronouncement now, we don’t know what the government has done or being done to assist the private firms.

“Before we make a pronouncement from the legislative point of view, we need to know the current state of things with the companies who are planning to lay off staff. We need to know what they are doing with the executive arm of government which has its full responsibility of liaising with them.

“As a Senate, we have to assess the economic situation in the real terms before we make any pronouncement because we need to be guided.

“We are happy that already, the executive is taking the bull by the horns. The Central Bank and the Bankers Committee made a pronouncement that there should be no lay-offs.

“The Federal Government is working round the clock to ensure that the post-COVID-19 fallout does not have an adverse effect on the economy and by extension, on the generality of the people.

“Going forward, we are ready to work closely with the executive on any decision that would be taken to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians and also by extension, ensure that nobody is laid off from his or her workplace.  We are working, watching and looking at all these things.”

Adeola further clarified that the National Assembly was still expecting the executive to present to it the amendments made to the 2020 budget.

He said the amendments would accommodate the N500bn being proposed by the Federal Government as part of its intervention in fighting COVID-19.

He admitted that the federal parliament at the moment did not have the details of the beneficiaries of the N500bn intervention fund.

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