One of the biggest clogs in the wheels of enterprising Nigerians is the seemingly deficient Corporate Affairs Commission. According to the World Bank, Nigeria is presently ranked 131st out of 190 countries in ease of doing business and for all the potentials inherent in the country, it is really pathetic to think about.
Popularly regarded as ‘CAC’, the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission has become a nightmare under the inept All Progressives Congress ‘Gang of Looters,’ which they deceitfully and megalomaniacal, call or believe to be a Government. Registration of business names and getting certificates of incorporation in due time have become something Nigerians celebrate with pomp and joy.
The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) was founded in 1990 under CAMA 1990 inter-alia, regulate and supervise the formation of companies; establish, maintain a company registry, arrange and conduct an investigation into the affairs of any company in Nigeria. The idea was to empower business ventures, the leverage to grow and ‘breath’ sadly, the ethically comatose unit has been an abysmal failure as far as any of these mandates are concerned.
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The truth is that people who stand in the way of doing business really can best be described as economic insurgents. Corporate affairs commission is the worst parastatal in Nigeria; making it easier to do business is such an important reform for countries who really care about the welfare of their citizens or economy, sadly, that is not the case with Nigeria especially under the misgovernance of All Progressives Congress (APC) who have proven without doubt that making life harsh for Nigerians is pleasurable to them. Beyond the actual reforms, what is obtainable with the regulators of businesses in a country is a signal to what kind of society a nation wants to be.
Every probing mind may want to ask? Why is business registration so important? The answer is in the failure rate of businesses which even blind people would notice in Nigeria. The benefit to society only materialises when those businesses start to make money, pay taxes and employ people. None of these is guaranteed when business registration processes are poor; rather, what is almost certainly guaranteed is failure!
Firstly, the bane of Nigeria is corruption, under the APC’s disastrous and marauding government, it has become endemic. For the Corporate Affairs Commission, the story is not different; obviously, corruption begets not just corruption but a bigger and seemingly endless form of it. From the staffers of the parastatal down to the processes, everything is skewed to create loopholes to enable corruption. For the staffers, they are not only corrupt but very antagonistic and aggressive. The truth remains, if the staffers of CAC are not business-friendly, regardless of technological innovation driving it, Nigeria would never be business friendly.
Despite the fact that the CAC headquarters and offices which are domiciled in Abuja, CAC zonal offices across Nigeria are fully computerised and managed with the latest technological innovation yet the organisation has found it difficult to fully digitalise enough to flush out the human inefficiency and incompetence which have now become synonymous with the commission. Its history of poor record-keeping despite the new technology at its disposal has remained a permanent scar. For example, the regular name search which should have been an automatic process sometimes takes more than 3 weeks to get a response. Sometimes issuance of Corporate documents and papers filed at the CAC oftentimes are lost within the precinct of the CAC and helpless overstretched Nigerians are always forced to bear the brunt.
Again, a quick stop at the website of the CAC would leave any sane mind bitter. Searching for availability of company names at the CAC, which is supposed to be a simple job, is hardly accurate. Some companies with identical names have been registered at the CAC. Everything just seems haphazard and unmethodical. Sometimes, these bugs put many prospective business owners off and eventually kill their intention to start a venture while other times, it is even worse, the site server would be down for several hours. With how important that site is supposed to be to businesses, the reasons for business failure in Nigeria are no longer far fetched.
Business registration in Nigeria is as difficult as attempting to break iron with your bare hands or the proverbial camel passing through the eye of the needle. Whereas registration of private limited liability companies takes less than one day in other countries, at the Nigerian CAC, it takes not less than three weeks or even months unless the applicant is ready to pay an ‘extortion fee.’ Pathetically enough, registration of social clubs, NGOs, churches et al under part ‘C’ of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990 could last up to as much as three years, and one still wonders why Nigeria is unbiasedly judged as the poverty capital of the world in the present nepotistic, sadistic and satanic Government of the worst group of criminals in Africa commonly known as APC.
The CAC has at several instances lied to the public that company registration in Nigeria could be expeditiously done ‘on-line’ and that the certificate of such registered company could be printed online in one’s office or bedroom. But this is just a ruse, blatant falsehood! In practice, online company registration is still a mirage in Nigeria. The truth remains, you may succeed in filling the requisite forms for the company or business incorporation online, but you can hardly complete the incorporation exercise in one month or even two months. Then again, the CAC payment portal is epileptic; absolutely nothing to write home about!
Under the watch of the highly inept CAC, many scammers have been able to operate fictitious companies and use them to commit all sorts of scam undetected. Not just that, many corrupt Nigerian politicians find it easy to hide under fictitious companies or under crony shareholders and directors to launder or siphon funds resulting from illegal contracts, awards or transactions, chief amongst them is the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma – this is another subject of revelation in future.
Well, CAC is nothing but a willing accomplice.
Careful findings showed that for months now, the CAC has not been allowing customers to collect their certificates and other CAC documents. Now why is this so? It is simply because according to the CAC, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic it has now hired some courier companies to be delivering all certificates and CAC documents to all customers. Now, what are the names of these courier companies so that customers may locate their respective offices and collect their certificates or documents from them? CAC has refused to disclose their names. Any deadline given to the courier companies to deliver the certificates and documents? Apparently none. Which means a customer who urgently needs his certificate or other documents for urgent business could be frustrated waiting for a certificate or documents that may never be delivered to him.
In conclusion, CAC is overdue for a reform – both human and systematic. The CAC has been rendered dysfunctional over the years due to human problems, not lack of technological innovation. Therefore CAC staffers should adopt the right attitude to work. They should be business-friendly. They should stop creating unnecessary structures or bureaucracies which delay the completion of jobs at the CAC. Deadlines for treating applications should be specifically spelt out and adhered to. Let the CAC Server be functional at all times including for the CAC payment portal. Customers should be allowed to register their companies online within 24 hours as done in many saner climes today. Applications for certified true copies of documents, changes, and alteration of share capital should be treated online within 24 hours. CAC zonal offices across Nigeria should function properly. All these can become reality if Nigerians get the right set of leaders. Surely, the country would never grow if it doesn’t improve on its ease of doing business. Nigerians are industrious and hardworking, the system should stop frustrating them.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
