The Senate has set a machinery in motion for the diversification of the nation’s economy through bitumen development .
Consequently, a proposed legislation to back up the move scaled the First Reading stage on the floor of the Senate on Thursday.
The Bill, sponsored by Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC, Ondo South), seeks the establishment of Bitumen Development Commission for official regulation of bitumen exploration, development and exportation.
According to the draft copy of the Bill, the sponsor posited that intendment of the proposed legislation is to make Bitumen an alternative revenue earning mineral resource in Nigeria, which has the second largest deposit in the world after Canada.
The proposed Commission headquarters as envisaged in the draft Bill would be sited in any of the three towns with large deposits of bitumen in Ondo State, namely Ode-Irele, Agbabu and Igbotako.
As proposed in the Bill, Bitumen Development Commission when established, would also facilitate execution of road infrastructure across the country and also create jobs for Nigerians, particularly Geologists whose expertise would be needed in the exploration of the mineral resource.
Meawhile, in a brief chat with journalists after Senate plenary, the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, said details of intendment of the proposed Commission would be made in his lead debate when the Bill would be considered for Second Reading.
“If the proposed legislation scales through in both the Senate and the House of Representatives with attendant establishment of Bitumen Development Commission after presidential assent, it would be the first law on exploration, development and possibly exportation of Bitumen in Nigeria,” Ibrahim stated.
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