The Senate has passed for consideration, a bill for an Act to Establish the National Industrial Technology Park as a mechanism for clustering of knowledge & innovation-based industrial parks formation in Nigeria; and for related matters, 2022.
The bill which was read for the second time during plenary on Tuesday is sponsored by Senator Ibikunle Amosun.
The bill is geared toward economic development, youth empowerment and capacity building.
What the lawmakers are saying
In his lead debate, Senator Amosun noted that when the industrial park is established, it will be an avenue for Nigerian entrepreneurs to converge and showcase their ideas and creativity thereby reducing unemployment and restiveness in the country.
While supporting the bill, Senator Ajayi Boniface said the bill will help diversify Nigeria’s economy from a monolithic economy that is oil-dependent.
He said “One example of this Industrial Park is the Silicon Valley in California, USA. California is richer than the richest States combined because of the industrial activities of the Silicon Valley. If we can achieve this Industrial Park and back it up with law, it will help us.
“The Industrial Park will help the start-ups to have an environment where they can contribute to the development of the country.”
Also in support of the bill, Senator Barau Jibrin said, “This is a Bill that will help us to be fully industrialized. It will help us achieve the long term objectives of the nation in terms of industrialization. I urge my colleagues to support this Bill to bring full scale industrialization to this country.”
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan who commended Senator Amosun for the bill, noted that a better security environment needs to be provided.
“I want to commend Senator Ibikunle Amosun for sponsoring this Bill, and of course we need to ensure that we provide a better security environment because if we are going to establish a National Industrial Park, it means accommodating more resources we don’t have those resources that we need in our country.
“We have to work together across all the levels of government to ensure we create and sustain a better security environment that will encourage investors,” Lawan said.
The bill has been referred to the Committee on Trade and Investment to report back to the house, within four weeks for legislative action.