NBA-SBL lauds CAC over operational innovations 

The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL), has lauded the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for its innovation in tackling delay in company registrations and its general operations.

A senior partner at Templars, Olumide Akpata commended the new leadership of CAC, stating that it is good that they now have a dynamic registrar general and leadership at the CAC.

Akpata gave the commendation at a one day stakeholders forum organized by the NBA-SBL in collaboration with the  CAC, aimed at enhancing the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

He further stated that continuous collaboration between CAC and NBA-SBL is a key to improving commercial law practice in Nigeria.

The Registrar General of the Commission, Alhaji Garba Abubakar said a software vendor was appointed in 2014 to develop an end to end solution where companies can use without having to come to CAC.

He said: “On this platform, companies can do all their filings, changes, file their accounts, access their previously filed documents, conduct searches and even authenticate documents. But unfortunately, they have not done this, as there is currently no integration between the upload portal, payment and the Company Registration Portal (CRP) and customers don’t have access to documents that the commission has been archiving online.”

According to him, to remedy this, an engagement has begun to create a new solution that can achieve the end to end operation.

He also said that an authentication card will be introduced into the system which is part of the innovations for the Commission.

His words: “Every company will appoint an officer who will be authenticating officer, thereby dispensing with the need for directors or secretaries to sign documents all the time.”

On the issue of a new checklist, Abubakar disclosed that the Commission is aware that across the country some of its staff request for documentation, which are not required by Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) or by the Company Regularizations 2012 and that some of the regulations are outdated.

“In order to remedy this and to ensure the CAC checklist /guidelines reflect the new CAMA 2020 Bill, the Commission has reviewed its checklist. The checklist will be made public on the Commission’s website, the public will be given two weeks to review and send opinions to the Commission, after which the Commission will harmonise and present the new checklist to the Commission’s board for approval,” he said.