The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has received a thumbs-up from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for pursuing business friendly reforms that has positioned Nigeria in the committee of nations with globally acceptable ease of doing business index.
The Commission received the encomium in Lagos at the 2017 annual general conference of the Association, following the presentation of the CAC’s statutory report by the Registrar-General (RG), Bello Mahmud.
A statement signed by Mr. Godfrey Ike, Head, Public Affairs, quoted the RG to have said “the Commission has recorded milestones and landmarks in business registration in Nigeria in line with global best practices.”
Mahmud, who extoled virtue of ICT in data management, said “the deployment of the user-friendly Company Registration Portal (CRP) afforded customers on-line and real-time access to the services of the Commission from the comfort of their offices and homes using different e-payment platforms.”
He added that “to encourage the use of the CRP, the Commission stopped manual submission of documents in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos and Enugu for new incorporation. He added that the Commission was continually training customers on the use of the CRP.
“In this regard, the Commission maintained two stands for sensitization, enquiries and complaints associated with the CRP at the Conference,” Mahmud disclosed.
The Registrar-General also revealed that the recent Consolidation of New Registration Forms had significantly reduced the cost of registration and further simplified company registration process.
Mahmud further disclosed that “the Commission in a bid to accomplish seamless registration process introduced a new Form CAC 1.1 which replaced the old Forms 2, 3, 4 and 7.
“The new Form has dispensed with the old Form CAC 2 because the information provided therein is already captured in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.
“The form had been deployed in the Company Registration Portal and is also available in the Commission’s website,” RG said.
Mahmud noted that the Commission had been actively participating in the National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Clinic (MSME) nationwide, which is being coordinated by the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria.
This forum, according to him, “has provided yet another platform for the Commission to enlighten the participants on the benefits of business registration.
“With respect to stamping of documents, Mahmud revealed that through effective collaboration with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), all documents can now be stamped electronically, saving the time and inconvenience associated with physical submission to the FIRS.
He disclosed the Commission’s desire to amend its enabling Act, the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) in order to strengthen the regulatory and enforcement capacity of the Commission to discharge its functions and thus promote global best practice and corporate governance in Companies, Business Names and Incorporated Trustees.
While applauding the NBA Leadership for a well-organized Annual Conference which was a radical departure from past conferences, he called on Lawyers to make their inputs on the proposed amendments as there was still a window for such amendments.
