Reps vow to repeal obsolete laws to boost Nigeria’s competitiveness, attract investment

… assure business community of regulatory certainty, expand access to finance

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, on Thursday, assured the organised private sector and the international community of the 10th Assembly’s resolve to repeal obsolete laws hindering businesses as part of a broad legislative agenda to improve Nigeria’s competitiveness, attract investment and accelerate economic transformation.

Speaker Tajudeen gave the assurance during the Legislative Business Breakfast Meeting with the theme: ‘The business of growth: Legislative priorities for investment, competitiveness and economic transformation’, as part of activities marking the 2026 National Assembly Open Week.

He also pledged the House’s resolve to guarantee greater regulatory certainty, reduce the cost of doing business, expand access to finance and strengthen oversight of public institutions implementing economic reforms.

Declaring the House’s determination to make Nigeria’s economy more competitive, Hon. Tajudeen said: “First, on regulatory clarity and legislative predictability, we commit that laws affecting business will be stable, transparent, and made with your input, so that no investor is ever ambushed by a rule they could not foresee.

“Second, on the cost of doing business, we will build on the tax reforms to harmonise levies across all tiers of government, so that one enterprise is not taxed to exhaustion by federal, state and local authorities at the same time.

“Third, on access to finance, we will strengthen, through law and through oversight, the institutions that lend to the real economy, and press for financing that actually reaches the small and medium enterprises that employ most of our people.

“Fourth, on competitiveness, we will repeal the obsolete laws that frustrate enterprise, and legislate to support local manufacturing, agriculture, and our readiness for the continental market.

“And fifth, on delivery, we will use our oversight not to harass the private sector, but to hold public agencies to account for implementing these reforms faithfully and courteously.”

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While noting that President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms were designed to empower businesses and stimulate private sector-led growth, highlighted the enactment of a new Investments and Securities Act which seeks to modernise Nigeria’s capital market and expand access to long-term finance for businesses, as well as legislation establishing six regional development commissions to spread economic growth across the country.

“Let me begin with a truth that must anchor everything else I say this morning. The reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, were not undertaken for the benefit of government. They were undertaken for you. Governments do not create wealth. They create the conditions in which wealth can be created, and it is you, the entrepreneurs, the manufacturers, the farmers, the traders and the investors of Nigeria, who turn those conditions into factories, into harvests, into exports and into jobs.

“The President has made it plain that his agenda is private-sector-led. That places you not at the margins of the Renewed Hope Agenda, but at its very centre. And a Parliament that understands this will measure its own success by one test above all, whether the laws it makes help you to invest, to grow and to employ.”

The Speaker acknowledged the economic pressures facing businesses, saying manufacturers and investors had drawn attention to soaring borrowing costs, declining credit to industry, foreign exchange challenges, rising production costs, unstable electricity supply, multiple taxation, port inefficiencies, insecurity and policy uncertainty.

“Let me first prove to you that we heard you clearly. You told us, as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has told the whole nation, that borrowing has become prohibitively expensive, and that credit to the manufacturing sector actually shrank by close to N2 trillion last year, starving industry of the money it needs to grow.

“You told us that the liberalisation of the exchange rate, though necessary, has raised the cost of the machinery and raw materials you must import. You spoke of power that remains unstable despite higher tariffs, forcing factory after factory to run on costly diesel. You spoke of multiple taxation, of too many agencies collecting too many levies at the same gate despite the recently passed tax laws. And you spoke of the difficulty of clearing goods through our ports, the drag of insecurity on farms and supply lines, and the uncertainty that comes when policy shifts without warning.

“These are not idle complaints. They are the honest testimony of the men and women who create our jobs, and this House has heard them.”

While admitting that recent reforms had imposed hardship on Nigerians, Hon. Tajudeen maintained that they were necessary to restore macroeconomic stability after years of delayed decisions.

“Permit me to place these concerns within the larger picture. The decisions this country took, to remove the costly fuel subsidy, to stop the reckless printing of money to cover deficits, and to unify our fractured exchange rates, were long avoided but could no longer be postponed. They have been hard, and I will not pretend otherwise.

“But the world’s most sober observers now tell us the direction is right. The International Monetary Fund, in its most recent assessment, has commended these reforms for rebuilding confidence and reducing our vulnerabilities, and projects that our economy will grow by more than four per cent this year.

“Yet that same assessment carries a warning we dare not ignore, that poverty and food insecurity in our country remain painfully high. This is precisely the point the Nigerian Economic Summit Group has pressed upon us all: that we must stay the course on reform, but we must now turn these economic gains into visible social progress. Stability at the top means little until it is felt on the factory floor, in the market, and on the family table.”

The Speaker insisted that Parliament had not merely endorsed the reforms but had driven them through legislation.

“And let me be clear that this Parliament has not been a bystander to reform. We have been its legislative engine, and our record is one of concrete action.”

He said the National Assembly had enacted the landmark tax reform laws that came into effect in January, simplifying Nigeria’s tax system, exempting small businesses from heavy tax obligations and reducing multiple taxation.

According to him, lawmakers also passed the Electricity Act, which ended the federal monopoly in electricity generation and distribution, opening the sector to states and private investors and attracting more than N2.8 billion in fresh investment.

He also cited the recovery of over N60 billion by the House Public Accounts Committee from defaulting companies, the approval of a new national minimum wage, and the expansion of student loans and consumer credit as part of Parliament’s efforts to build an economy that works for businesses and citizens alike.

“This is what our Legislative Agenda promised, an economy placed at the very centre of our work.”

Looking ahead, Hon. Tajudeen said Nigeria must position itself to take advantage of opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“We also see the opportunities that lie just beyond our present difficulties. The African Continental Free Trade Area has opened a single market of more than a billion people, and Nigeria, as the largest economy on the continent, must be equipped to sell into it and not merely to buy from it.

“Our young people are building a digital and creative economy that already earns this nation global respect, our farmland can feed the region if we add value at home, and our abundant gas can power a fresh wave of industry. The Nigerian Economic Summit Group speaks of a trillion-dollar economy within our reach, and this House intends to legislate deliberately for that ambition.”

The Speaker urged the organised private sector to move beyond dialogue by engaging more actively with lawmakers.

“Yet the law can do only so much from a distance. If we are to get this right, we need you as partners, and not merely as petitioners.

“So I ask four things of you. Do not allow this Communiqué to gather dust. Bring it to our relevant committees, on commerce, on trade and investment, on industry, on finance and on banking, as a living working document.

“Come to our public hearings, and come with data, because sound law is built on evidence and not on anecdote. Tell us honestly when a law we have made is not working as intended, so that we can move quickly to amend it.

“And let us, from today, institutionalise this engagement, so that the conversation between Nigerian business and its Parliament no longer waits for an annual breakfast, but becomes a permanent and structured partnership.”

In the bid to deepen cordial relationship with the business community, Speaker Tajudeen proposed the establishment of a standing National Assembly and Business Executive Roundtable (NABER), to meet twice every year.

“So let me move us from lesson to action. I propose, here and now, that we institutionalise this gathering. Let us establish a standing National Assembly and Business Executive Roundtable (NABER), convened twice every year, that brings the leadership of both chambers and our economic committees together with the organised private sector, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, organised labour and our development partners.

“Its mission would be simple and serious, to keep the conversation between Parliament and the productive economy continuous, structured and grounded in evidence, rather than occasional and reactive. Its purpose would be fourfold: to review, each half-year, the true state of our business environment; to track the implementation of our reforms and the fate of the commitments we make to one another; to shape a shared, pro-growth legislative calendar for the year ahead; and to surface the obstacles to investment early enough for us to remove them by law.

“The Roundtable should have a permanent home here at the National Assembly Library, so that it endures as an institution and does not depend on the goodwill of any single session.”

Abbas reaffirmed the House’s commitment to supporting the private sector, saying economic growth ultimately depends on businesses creating jobs and making investments.

“Let me close with a commitment. The commitment is that this House, in step with the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President, will remain pro-growth and pro-business, because every job you create is a family lifted, and every investment you make is a vote of confidence in Nigeria.”

In his remarks, Chairman, House Committee on Commerce, Hon. Ahmed Munir, reaffirmed the commitment of the 10th National Assembly to aligning its legislative agenda with the needs of the organised private sector to improve Nigeria’s business environment and drive economic growth.

Munir said the legislature was working to ensure that commercial laws reflected the realities of the marketplace and supported investment, competitiveness and innovation.

He said the National Assembly could no longer make laws in isolation and was committed to working closely with businesses to eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks, improve regulatory certainty and create a more predictable environment for enterprises to thrive.

While noting that the Climate Resilience Commerce bill passed by the House is awaiting Senate concurrence, he added that other legislative framework are before the Parliament, namely: the Sale of Goods Act Amendment Bill to modernise Nigeria’s commercial laws for e-commerce and digital transactions, the Digital Economy Mainstreaming Bill, the Sustainable Finance Bill, the Bankruptcy Act Amendment Bill and proposed amendments to the Nigerian Export Promotion Council Act to strengthen the protection of geographical indications for Nigerian products.

On her part, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, underscored the importance of legislative support in driving Nigeria’s economic reforms, saying the quality of laws enacted by the National Assembly will significantly influence investment, enterprise growth and the country’s global competitiveness.

Dr. Oduwole said a strong legislative framework was critical to providing certainty for investors, strengthening policy implementation and supporting long-term private sector growth.

She noted that the Federal Government’s drive to promote investment, industrialisation, export expansion and private sector development depended largely on effective collaboration between the executive and the legislature.

According to the minister, the diversification of Nigeria’s non-oil exports remains a key priority under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment working closely with the National Assembly and other stakeholders to achieve the administration’s target of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030.

Oduwole said recent data from the Nigerian Economic Summit Group’s Business Confidence Monitor showed that Nigeria’s business environment remained in expansion territory for the sixth consecutive month in June 2026, with the Business Performance Index rising to 104.6 points, reflecting growing confidence in the country’s ongoing economic reforms.

She highlighted key reforms undertaken by the Tinubu administration, including foreign exchange reforms, fuel subsidy removal, the enactment of the Investments and Securities Act, and new fiscal and tax policies, describing them as measures aimed at creating a more conducive regulatory environment for investors, improving productivity and generating employment.

The Minister also appealed for the continued support of the 10th National Assembly in advancing critical economic legislation, including bills on intellectual property, the domestication of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and other reforms designed to strengthen Nigeria’s investment and business climate.