By Abubakar Yusuf, Abuja.

The new leadership of the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC under Alhaji Garba Abubakar has turned the commission into a center of excellence and a beehive of activities in the last two years, particularly from January 2020 with its series of ongoing innovations, initiatives, and reforms.

This was evidenced from the roll calls of stakeholders to the commission ranging from corporate bodies, organizations, professional bodies, non-governmental organizations both local and international bodies as well as countries with a view not limited to understudying its activities, but commendations, applause, and appraisal that had stabilized the hub of investors and investments into Nigeria before, during and post COVID.

The recent surge of representatives of countries, organizations, and bodies to the commission had become a departure from the previous norm, but with the glaring determination of the current leadership to bring to par its activities in line with international best global practices with the newly digitized operational template.

The Award of Excellence conferred on the leadership of the commission in January 2022 for exemplary leadership by a recognized tabloid “News Direct” not only spurred it to do more but became a road and exodus of more local and international bodies into the country, through identification with the successes recorded by the commission, two years at the saddle of the current dispensation.

The ongoing reforms, and comparative analysis of actors and drivers of the Nigerian economy, among many other giant strides of government agencies, stands out the Corporate Affairs Commission as one of the outstanding government agencies, that had laid a solid foundation for a thriving economy post-COVID.

These among many other new policies included but not limited to the digitization of it’s its processes that had reduced to the barest minimum human interference, fraud, and other fraud-related activities in the commission.

The introduction of Company and Allied Matters CAMA 2020 in its new operations with strict compliance, electronic signature, with the issuance of certificate with QR code, made it functions a cynosure of foreign attention and had attracted multiple investments and investors, along with the new insolvency regulations.

Further to these, the introduction of sole or one-man ownership, an amalgamation of incorporated trustees with similar lines of business and objectives, along with persons with significant controls among many other milestones and inventions put in place to ensure ease of doing businesses, became the attraction of both local and international communities to.

With the innovations and inventions that had encouraged investments and investors along with protecting their investments with the new policies, it became seamless to bring onboard business conglomerates’ aftermath of the global pandemic of COVID-19 and its effects.

The commission’s enabling environment that paved the way for the influx of Foreign Direct Investment FDI with modest rules attracted the international communities which included the World Bank, the UK Dept of Treasury, and the Canadian high commission in Nigeria among many others.

According to the World Bank in a message through the Bureau of Public Service Reforms BPSR congratulated the commission for standing out as a “center of excellence” and validated star performer among government agencies.

The compliance on a quaterly basis as well as NIS ISO 9001-2015 certification by Standard Organization of Nigeria SON and its submission to ‘the “Self Assessment Tool” SAT was a point of departure and emboldened by the World Bank, Ibrahim Arabi of BPSR stated.

Also, the UK Dept of Treasury-led by Allison Kelly its representative lauded the commission for a seamless policy that will combat incessant terrorism financing across the country.

The Canadian High Commission applauded the ease of doing business occasioned by the ongoing reforms in the commission and restored the confidence of the international communities.

According to Delphina Ocquaye, the Canadian counselor expressed satisfaction that the new policy in CAC will fast track the treatment of visa applications from Nigeria, and encourage partnerships, and legal discussions through the confirmation of civil documents.

He expressed happiness about the digitized platform, huge interest in the country through investments, business interest, permanent residency, scholarships, and others at the introduction of the new policies.

It gave concessions to Nigerians with high intellect and was ranked second (2) among nations enjoying permanent residency in Canada.

In Nigeria, the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry ACCI sought collaboration and membership of the body at the point of registration/incorporation of business entities, though optional at the initial stage, but subsequently made mandatory as applicable in developed countries during its visit.

The body stated by these new policies had ensured ease of intervention in financial transactions, inclusive consultation, and post-registration monitoring and partnering.

It will also enable the body to ensure tax base companies, comply with its provisions, along with tracing and tracking annual reports. The Chairman, Al-Mujtaba Abubakar maintained.

On its part, The Abuja Enterprise Agency AEA expressed satisfaction with the policies and programs of the new commission, as it was encouraged by the free 250,000 business registration post-COVID across 36 states and the FCT.

Shehu Abdulsamad said it adopted the 50% waiver to enable them to replicate its program through registration of 2000 free business conglomerates, and described the agency as the best and most visited as it stands out among fourteen (14) agencies present at a one-stop-shop located in within Abuja.

The Lagos Business School commended the commission for promoting discipline, sanity, and hard work during a courtesy call.

The Executive Director, of Education, stated that the ongoing reforms had ensured the building of effective, efficient directors in the public service.

Also, the new Nigerian Data Protection Bureau, Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Vincent Olatunji during a visit stressed the need to take data security a top priority for economic growth, stating that CAC as a Data reservoir, described the agency’s website as ‘top notch’ hence the need to ensured it’s protection.

The CSOs and NGOs were also not left out in the quest to identify with the success story recorded in the last two years by the commission among many others.

The Registrar General promised to continue to support the CSOs and NGOs in their quest for self-regulation.

Written By ABUBAKAR YUSUF All inquiries to yus.abubakar3@gmail.com.