By Henry Uche
Experts across economics, management, administration and other disciplines are set for a big conversation to address the controversies surrounding section 124 of The Companies And Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA) and Section 13 of the Companies Regulations 2021, issued by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), at an upcoming Companies Secretaries and Registrars forum, coming Thursday.
At a media brief in Lagos organized yesterday by Institute Of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), the Chairperson, Corporate Members Committee of ICSAN, Abiola Lasehinde, assured investors and beneficiaries of the dividends that all hope is not lost as the federal government would be engaged to reason with voices of concerned persons while feasible solutions would be profferred to fix those errors and omissions in CAMA.
With the Theme: “Managing Unclaimed Dividends and Unutilised funds in Dormant Bank Accounts: Issues, Options & Way out”, Lasehinde, said it is not the best time for government to take drastic decisions capable of aggravating the plight of people especially those who have labored and deserve their rewards.
Lasehinde affirmed that, “Those wealth belongs to the investors and their beneficiaries, it’s their money, so why deprive them what is due to them? We rather expect the government to work hand in glove with the Organized Private Sector (OPS) to eliminate the bottlenecks in the whole process of accessing the dividends. But if government continues to exasperate the efforts of investors, the country loses in the long run,” she asseverated.
For ease of reference, the controversial sections are reproduced below.
Section 124 (1-3) of CAMA 2020 provides:
124. (1) Where, after the commencement of this Act, a memorandum delivered to the Commission under section 36 states that the association to be registered is to be registered with shares, the amount of the share capital stated in the memorandum to be registered shall not be less than the minimum issued share capital.
(2) No company having a share capital shall, after the commencement of this Act, be registered with a share capital less than the minimum issued share capital.
(3) Where, at the commencement of this Act, the issued share capital of an existing company is less than the minimum issued share capital, the company shall, not later than six months after the commencement of this Act, issue shares to an amount not less than the minimum issued share capital, while
Section 13 (1-3) of the CAC Companies Regulations 2021 provides thus:
13. (1) Where, at the commencement of the Act, a company has unissued shares in its capital, the company shall not later than 30th June 2021 fully issue such shares.
(2) Notice of issue delivered to the Commission for registration shall be exempted from payment of filing fees.
(3) Where a company to which this regulation applies fails to comply with this regulation, the company and every officer of the company shall be liable to a daily default penalty as prescribed by the Commission.
She added that, Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) of the Institute is still open for young people to explore in other to stand out in the market place as participants would have practical experience and exposure to soar in their respective disciplines. “ICSAN has a lot to deliver to Nigerians this year especially our members, and we shall leave no stone unturned to ensure that we achieve our mandate of fostering sound corporate governance, accountability, transparency and ethical leadership across board,” she avowed.