The Corporate Affairs Commission CAC has concluded plans to close manual registration of businesses and corporations in all its remaining locations nationwide.
Head of Public Affairs, CAC, Godfrey Ike, revealed this during a two-day strategic management planning retreat held recently. He said the action became necessary to enable the commission extend its online services across the country.
It would be recalled that recently, as part of efforts to enhance the ease of doing business in Nigeria, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) announced some far-reaching decisions, part of which is the company incorporation in 24 hours policy.
Consequently: Incorporation of companies will now be done within 24 – 48 hrs following completion of application forms & required documents
— Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (@PEBECgovng) March 15, 2017
By this, incorporation of companies will now take 24 hours following the submission of required documents. Previously, the process took a minimum of ten days. Original documents will be submitted at the point of collection of registration and must tally with documents uploaded online.
Ike said the closing down of manual registration across the country will further help to reposition the commission to meet its objectives.
“This is re-positioning the commission towards organisational excellence which of course is top priority of this administration.”
To register names of new companies and organisation on the new e-portal platform,
- Business Owners can search for availability of a business name using the CAC portal.
- Instead of physical submission, business owners can upload their registration documents via the CAC portal. Also filling of form CAC 1.1 when registering a business is mandatory.
- Stamp duties can then be paid via the portal which is integrated to the FIRS e-stamp portal.
- CAC has made the need for lawyers/accredited agents/chartered secretaries optional when registering a company.
- Certificate of incorporation forms/statutory declarations of compliance is now to be handled free of charge by CAC in-house lawyers.
While the shift to online registration of businesses by CAC is commendable, the big question is does the agency currently have the capacity to deploy an online facility across the country?
Internet penetration in the country was a meagre 76.2 million in 2017 and the cost of accessing the internet is still very high for most Nigerians. There were also reports of glitches on the portal which has further raised doubts about on the capacity of the commission to deploy online registration across the country.
Currently, the CAC Portal experiences lots of downtime. The Commission has committed to external hosting of its database to fix this
— Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (@PEBECgovng) March 15, 2017
The quest to place Nigeria in a better position on the ease of doing business ranking-which currently ranks the country 145 out of 190 countries is a welcome development, however, CAC must ensure the provision of facilities that will facilitate the smooth running of business registration on its portal. Outsourcing this to local consultants will be a good idea.
