NIGERIA'S petroleum minister Timipre Sylva has vowed that the government will make a concerted effort to push through oil sector reform legislation. The reforms aim to boost the upstream industry by lowering the tax take on the development of neglected onshore and shallow-water assets, both for established and newer investments, with the first in a series of packages ready for the presidential approval that precedes debate by lawmakers. There is a new sense of urgency in Abuja, with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) announcing this week that Nigeria will probably slip into recession alongside neighbouring sub-Saharan states, with the economy likely to shrink by 5.1% in 2020, after registering growth of 2.4% in 2019. Nigeria's feeble recovery from its last recession, in 2016, will worsen the impact of the new recession, heavily impacting the fragile small-to-medium sized enterprises active in the oil sector, according to the IFC.
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