Dasuki Ibrahi Arabi
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday in Abuja assented to the Companies and Allied Matters (CAMA) Bill, 2020 recently passed by the National Assembly. This is quite commendable, taking cognizance of the importance of the bill which had been lying fallow for 30 years now. The Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) commends Mr. President for demonstrating the courage and political will in endorsing this long awaited enactment. This will go a long way in facilitating ease of doing business and corporate governance in Nigeria, hitherto impeded by archaic and colonial inherited company laws which did not take cognizance of the Nigerian peculiar business environment. As chief articulator and driver of the public sector reform policy, BPSR under my humble leadership has been advocating for new company law, and was involved in almost all the processes leading to the actualization of the CAMA, 2020 Act. The President’s action on this important piece of legislation, therefore, repealed and replaced the extant Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990, introducing after 30 years, several corporate legal innovations geared toward enhancing ease of doing business in the country is indeed quite commendable.
Despite the desirability of doing business in Nigeria, its operation faces a lot of challenges. For instance, companies in Nigeria used foreign company legislation, because legislations in Nigeria have failed to address company’s law problems that were peculiar to Nigerian’s social-cultural and political environment, and did not address the rapid economic and commercial developments of the Nigerian country. In addition, most of the problems of these inherited laws are Foreign Multinational Corporation laws that dominated and controlled the activities of business enterprises along with their economic interests brought in.
However, the various measures taken by the Federal Government of Nigeria to improve the investment climate in the country enshrined by the newly signed CAMA, 2020 Act are commendable and could help to attract foreign investors into the country.
Let me highlight the innovations in the new Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 which include among others: Filing fee reductions and other reforms to make it easier and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises to register and reform their businesses in Nigeria. Allowing corporate promoters of companies to establish private companies with a single member or shareholder, and creating limited liability partnerships and limited partnerships to give investors and business people alternative forms of carrying out their business in an efficient and flexible way.
Revolutionizing processes and procedures to ease the operations of companies, such as introducing Statements of Compliance; replacing “authorized share capital” with minimum share capital to reduce costs of incorporating companies; and providing for electronic filing, electronic share transfers, e-meetings as well as remote general meetings for private companies in response to the disruptions to close contact physical meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Requiring the disclosure of persons with significant control of companies in a register of beneficial owners to enhance corporate accountability and transparency. Enhancing the minority shareholder protection and engagement; introducing enhanced business rescue reforms for insolvent companies; and permitting the merger of Incorporated Trustees for associations that share similar aims and objectives.
I will surely not want to bore you with the history of Nigeria’s public service reform; suffice to state that the National Strategy for Public Service Reform (NSPSR) provides a common vision and it is, indeed, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) for Nigeria to achieve a world class public service by this year (2020). Due to the need for a one-stop shop where reform information can be obtained, BPSR was set up in 2004 to serve as engine room and center for coordination of reforms among the MDAs. There were pockets of reforms being carried out in different MDAs before BPSR came on board. BPSR was established by the Federal Government to initiate, coordinate and ensure full implementation of public service reforms in Nigeria. The bureau’s vision is to drive change that will position Nigeria’s Public Service as an institution of excellence and the Mission is to facilitate the building of Nigeria’s public service into a highly functional, professional, customer-focused and result-oriented institution.
Among its functions are initiating action plan on reforms at different levels for the attention of the Steering Committee on Reforms; Elucidating government policies on reforms; Coordinating, monitoring and evaluating reform implementation activities; Conducting research on implementation efforts and presenting best practices models; Providing advisory and technical support services for change management teams and working groups; Engendering an environment of learning among MDAs; Disseminating information on all aspects of reforms, and; Submitting quarterly progress reports on reform activities to the Steering Committee on Reforms.
In addition to the functions, the Bureau’s operational approach consists of the following strategy focus: Establishing policies and guidelines on reforms; Relating with public organizations to encourage reforms and obtain information on their progress; Intervening to initiate service-wide reforms; Coordinating reform programmes; Briefing government on reform programmes and obtaining necessary approvals; Budgeting for and financing critical service-wide and sometimes MDA/Parastatals-based reform programmes and; Interacting with relevant stakeholders on reform issues and Communicating with the public.
While I commend Mr. President for supporting the operations of BPSR, the bureau is poised for reinvigorating the Nigerian Public service. Of course, being a coordinating agency, the BPSR would face challenges in the course of the reforms hence there need for all Central Agencies and MDAs to continue to cooperate, support and partner with us in driving these reforms.
Arabi, Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) writes from Abuja via ([email protected]).