From: WALTER UKAEGBU, Abuja
The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has said that 38,000 registered companies with the organisation have been listed for suspension for being redundant, while 9,300 others have been struck out since 2008.
Registrar-General of the Commission, Alhaji Bello Mahmud, who made this disclosure, on Wednesday, in Abuja, during a round table with the media, said the companies cannot go back to business unless they go to court and apply to the court to enable it recover the registration.
The Registrar-General, who spoke through his Personal Assistant, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, said with a view to getting the optimal benefits of the Companies Registration Portal (CRP), the commission has been collaborating with Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) so as to introduce electronic stamping (e-stamping) of documents on the CRP.
The e-stamping according to him would dispense with physical submission of documents which causes delay and facilitate one stop on – line shop for company registration, adding that the design and time – line for implementing has already been agreed with FIRS and the e- stamping portal were expected to be deployed soon.
He explained that it was expected that by the time the integration were completed company registration in Nigeria can be carried out within a maximum of three hours.
On digitization of legacy records Bello disclosed that in order to ensure the integrity of its database and provide for easy retrieval of the registration records for ease of access by staff and customers electronically the commission has embarked on rapid digitization of all the legacy records into suitable electronic formats.
He said the project which commenced in 2014 were ongoing and has reached advanced stage in terms of the volume of records captured so far.
“ The digitalisation of records of these registered entities i.e limited liability companies business names and incorporated trustees will serve the convenience of our customers and stakeholders and achieve the desired delivery benchmarks set by the commission,” he said.
On review of the Companies and Allied Matter Act, 1990 (CAMA), the RG stated that the companies and allied matters act has been in operation since 1990 without any substantial amendment, but explained that the commission has carried out an in house review of CAMA to bring it in line with global best practices in company regulation and administration.
Some of the key features of the review are the right of one person to form a private limited liability company. Provision for business rescue and recovery proceeding that will give temporary moratorium to financially distressed companies to adopt recovery measures under close regulatory supervision and the suspension of right to creditors to intervene during the period.
It also include the review of fines and penalties in line with current economic realties.