CAC Services

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) says it has delisted 40,000 registered companies that have not recorded any activity. Azuka Azinge, CAC’s acting registrar-general, made this known in Abuja on Wednesday while briefing journalists on the activities of the commission between October 2017 and October 2019.    “We have succeeded to clean up our registration records by delisting at least 40,000 registered companies from our system between October 2017 and October 2019. “The exercise is aimed at ensuring that only names of performing companies remain in our database, companies involved could as well re-apply subsequently if they so desire.” Azinge said 244,428 business names have been registered since October 2017 adding that the commission has implemented the business incentive strategy (BIS) under which the cost of registration of business was slashed by 50% to ease the burden for micro, small and medium enterprises. “We have full closure of manual registration nationwide and deployment of online real-time pre-registration services to all state offices through the company registration portal (CRP), to enable reorganisation of departments and state offices for efficient service delivery,” she said adding that customers can pick up their registration certificates at any of its offices.   Source: The Cable

Lady Azuka Azinge, acting Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), said on Wednesday in Abuja, that the upgrade of the Company Registration Portal (CRP) is to enhance the incorporation process. Azinge, who spoke at a news conference, dismissed the allegation that the CRP upgrade was aimed at siphoning money. She described the allegation as false and illogical, saying that it was a mischievous smear campaign against her. The Company Registration Portal is the software that drives the operations of the commission.       Azinge added that the move to upgrade the software was geared toward ensuring improved efficiency, provision of greater customer experience and ease of doing business. She, however, said that the commission reverted to its previous system when the initiative could not be realised. According to her, the management decided on infrastructure upgrade of certain operational process in two major areas, E-Certificate and Certified True Copies (CTC). “This was an upgrade of pre-incorporation process designed to enable customers to print certificates and certified true copies of filed documents from their ends. “The upgrade as originally designed was aimed at doing away with physical contact with the commission or Federal Inland Revenue Service in the registration process. “The initiative was to ensure improved efficiency, provide greater customer experience and further ease doing business. “But the desired objective was not realised and the commission had to revert to status quo,’’ Azinge said. She, however, said that the commission had deployed online post-incorporation modules where all post-incorporation applications are currently partially automated. According to Azinge, seven high volume post-incorporation processes were deployed on Aug. 19, 2019. She emphasised that the deployment was aimed at enhancing operational efficiency, save cost for both the organisation and customers and also promote ease of doing business. “Pre and post-incorporation processes were already ongoing processes for which payments were made on the Treasury Single Account (TSA) Platform (Remita). “It is difficult to see how an upgrade of existing process that had established mode of payment could result in siphoning money when the mode of payment itself did not change. “The allegation that CRP upgrade was aimed at siphoning money is not only patently false, but illogical,’’ Azinge said. She said that the vendors of the software, Messrs Oasis Nigeria Limited was engaged by the commission in 2014, after approval by the Federal Executive Council.   Source: PM News

The Corporate Affairs Commission on Wednesday said it has paid the over N1bn salary increment arrears which was approved in 2013 by the Federal Government. The Acting Registrar-General, CAC, Azuka Azinge said this during a chat with journalists in Abuja. The nine per cent salary increment arrears had been a source of industrial disputes over the years.     The workers union of the commission had on several occasions shut business activities at the commission due to non-payment of the arrears. Speaking on the development, Azinge said within the last two years that she presided over the affairs of the Commission, funds had been released for the payment of the arrears. She explained that apart from the N1bn, the commission had also paid over N200m as pension arrears. She said, “Within two years that I took over, we have settled 2013, nine per cent salary increment arrears that arose from a tripartite agreement between the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, CAC and the Union, which was a major cause of perennial and industrial unrest. “We have also completed decentralization of all State Offices operations, to ensure that State Offices operate at par with Head Office, and to enable customers to pick up their certificates at any location of their choice.” She said the Commission had achieved full closure of manual registration nationwide and deployment of online real time pre-registration services to all State offices through the Company Registration Portal. This, she noted, would enable people to register their businesses from the comfort of their homes and offices within 24 hours. On the allegations that she is currently earning the salary of a substantive Registrar-General, she said the claim was untrue. She said based on the approval of the board at its 74th meeting, an acting allowance was approved for her based on the commission’s condition of service. She said the post of acting Registrar General qualifies her as an officer of the Commission to earn acting allowance if she acts at a higher position for 30 or more days. According to her, it is based on the belief that the acting RG is an officer of the Commission that the Board on the 8th and 9th February, 2019 considered and approved payment of acting allowance to her. “The Board’s decision was informed by the fact that Rule 6. 06 mentioned did not provide details as to what constitutes acting allowance. “As a matter of fact, the Board at its 74th meeting approved the acting allowances only, which excludes salary. Consequently, the acting RG still earns the salary of a Director. “From the foregoing, it is therefore not true to say that the Board upgraded my status as my letter of appointment was explicit and crystal clear on the status of my appointment as acting Registrar-General.” She explained that the Commission would continue to implement reforms that would support the government’s ease-of-doimg business initiative.   Source: Punch

The National Council for Women Societies (NCWS) has appealed to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to create a gender desk that will collate information specifically targeted at women’s empowerment. National president of the council, Mrs Gloria Shoda, made the appeal when members of the council visited the acting Registrar of CAC, Ms Azuka Azinge in Abuja, Wednesday. She said the desk will assist in raising awareness and educate women on the benefits of formalising their small businesses and all opportunities available in registering such ventures with CAC.   She said “a gender desk in CAC will help to collate information, specifically targeted at women’s empowerment. Research shows that women outnumber men in business start-ups.  “However, there are structural obstacles which women face in the society in general, such as gender discrimination in access to opportunities for expansion, skill-acquisition, training and credit facilities.” Shoda added that the NCWS had the capacity to reach out and educate women, especially in rural areas on what CAC had to offer in terms of business and enterprise environment that would be beneficial to the women. She stressed the need for unemployed persons, especially women, to venture into business enterprises, as well as register with CAC to enable them to have access to loans, grants and other benefits that would aid their businesses.  “Therefore, the growth and expansion of the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) sector, as well as the importance of registering a business name cannot be over-emphasised for the womenfolk. “The benefits are immense, including having access to grants, credit facilities and benefitting from government-backed schemes, exhibitions and training initiatives.  The council president commended CAC for reducing the fees for business name registration by 50 per cent for a period of two months and appealed to the commission to extend the grace period to enable women, especially in rural areas, to benefit from it.  Acting Registrar of CAC, Azinge assured NCWS that the agency would continue to support and encourage the growth of businesses and provide enabling environment for them to thrive. Azinge also assured that the commission would look into the issue of extending business name registration to enable women, especially in rural areas to benefit from the cost reduction of business names registration.   Source: Blueprint

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has stated that registration of business names is necessary for both companies and small scale businesses as any enterprises operating without registering with the Commission is liable to be sanctioned. Head of Bauchi State office of the Commission Alhaji Abdullahi Abubakar stated this, Thursday while speaking on the procedure and requirements for registering businesses at Business support clinic program and e-mentoring with mentors and mentees with beneficiaries of digital livelihood training for young women and girls organized by centre for information technology and development (CITAD) with support from equal digital skills fund held in Bauchi. He said it is compulsory for any one using any name for his business enterprises other than his personal name and surname to register it with the Commission adding that offenders risk penalty. According to him, registering the business will also help business men to have monopoly of the business names and get recognition as legal enterprises. The CAC boss noted that the registration costs the sum of  ‘only N10, 000’ Also speaking, the representatives of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) Bashir Musa and Mohammed Chinade explained that after registering with CAC, manufacturers of consumable items should register with NAFDAC while SON registers companies producing both consumable and non consumable items to ensure only quality items are sold to Nigerians. Earlier, the Executive Director of the centre for information technology and development (CITAD) Mr Y.Z Ya’u represented by the technical officer of the centre Kamaluddeen Umar said the training was intended to equip young women with practical ICT training and use its tools that would help them in the ICT industry and to start up micro-enterprises.   Source:  Blue print

The Corporate Affairs Commission apologizes to its esteemed customers and the general public for the current disruption of its online services, the disruption was due to infrastructure upgrade which was designed at enhancing service efficiency and customer experience. The Commission had on Monday 19th August, 2019 deployed additional online services for the processing of post incorporation applications as part of its infrastructure upgrade. Consequent upon the disruption due to the infrastructure upgrade, the Commission has set up Customer Support Services (CSS) at its State Offices nationwide to attend to complaints from members of the public. The CSS is in addition to the existing Help Lines. Also, the CAC has set up a dedicated support team at the on-going Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) AGC in Lagos to attend to complaints from delegates during the one week event. The Commission is doing everything possible to ensure that normal services resumes as soon as possible. The Commission appeals to the general public to exercise calm and regrets all inconveniences caused as a result of the disruption in its services.   Source: Proshare

Company Statement of Affairs The Statement of Affair is a summary of a Company’s assets and liabilities. It states the net book value and amount expected to realise at the date of Insolvency of the business. It provides a useful source of information for both the Administrator and the creditors. And It is often referred to by lenders should directors get involved in new ventures before lending to the new company to understand how serious the previous insolvency was. The SOA may also be considered when determining whether a director should be disqualified. Its analysis can be used to establish: The likely return to creditors The extent of the insolvency Whether the directors have concealed assets from the administrator Whether there are indications of wrongful trading Once the administration is complete the actual performance of the administrator. Filing of Statement of Affairs for CAC and FIRS Applications For CAC Filing of Annual Returns, requirement include: Audited financial statement or statement of affairs for “Small Companies” signed by 2 directors and duly certified by a chartered accountant where applicable. Small companies include Company with authorised share capital of less than N2million Company with annual turnover of less than N2million Company with no allien or foreign national member or government agent or nominee. Where the directors among them hold more than 51% of the alloted share capital. For FIRS Filling of annual return, requirement include: Company Statement of Affairs whereby the company is yet to commence business or/and audited financial statement signed by a director and duly certified by a chartered accountant where applicable Payment of fees   Source: Marylea

The Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, has announced on Monday that it has extended the 50 percent reduction in registration fee for business names in Nigeria. The programme launched under CAC’s Business Incentive Strategy allows intending business owners to pay N5, 000 less of the original fee. However, the discount window will end on Friday, August 16, after which payment for registration of business names will revert to the original fee. The commission, in a statement released in Abuja through its Head of Public Affairs, Moses Adagusuu, said that the commission has successfully registered 220,773 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, in the space of ten months. The CAC said that the MSMEs were registered between October 2018 and July 31, this year. Adaguusu said, “From when the BIS started in October 2018 to July 31, the commission gathered at least 220,773 MSMEs under the BIS window. The list is growing day by day.” It also reminded Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises about the benefits of registering their business names with the commission. Adaguusu revealed that “Registration of their businesses will enable them own corporate accounts with banks, have access to loans, grants and other government interventions.” The commission clarified that the three-day extension of the cut in registration fee was to allow MSMEs that could not register due to the Id-el-Kabir Islamic celebration to take advantage of the opportunity at the reduced cost of N5, 000. It also revealed that MSMEs could register their business names through the online registration porter ( services.cac.gov.ng or cac.gov.ng ) or offline at the Commission’s offices, nationwide.   Source: Investor King

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has extended by three days the 50 per cent reduction in the registration fee for Business Names with effect from 13th August, 2019. A statement signed by the Commission’s Head of Public Affairs, Moses Adaguusu, revealed that the fee cut would now end on Friday, 16th August, 2019. “The three day extension is to enable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that could not register their businesses during the promo because of the Sallah holidays to do so,” the statement stated. CAC said registration of their businesses will enable them own corporate accounts with Banks, have access to loans, grants and other government interventions. “Members of the public are enjoined to take advantage of the three Day extension to register their Business Names at the reduced cost of N5,000. Registration can be done online or at any of the Commission’s Offices nationwide,” the statement added.   Source: Daily trust