NBA-SBL, CAC deepen partnership to improve ease of doing business
The Council of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law, (NBA-SBL) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have said that both organisations will continue to collaborate in order to improve ease of doing business.
Speaking during a one-day stakeholders’ forum between the CAC and the NBA-SBL, Ayuli Jemide, vice chair NBASBL said the Section, which is the specialisation arm of the NBA, will constantly engage the CAC because the CAC is the company house where all the businesses are registered and for business lawyers, it is the hub for businesses.
Jemide also said that beyond the collaboration, he was hopeful that a new Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) will bring changes that will help the ease of doing business, as he expects both organisations to engage more on how to make sure that the law is not just signed but the intent of the law is put into operation.
Speaking on the Section’s expectations from the CAC, he said, “The need to go digital for CAC is urgent for us and has been there for several years. We have been talking about deploying technology to enhance the efficiency and it has been a very slow-moving train but with the current registrar general (RG) and the new chairman, we see a stronger will to get achieve this and to cross the finish line.
“The NBA-SBL will engage and collaborate more with the commission, to try to raise money by way of grants and endowments to achieve these objectives on a private basis and see how we can roll this out.”
Also speaking at the event, Ademola Seriki, chairman of Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) said the NBA-SBL and the CAC are creating enormous awareness for the public.
He however lamented that a lot of people meddle with files inside the CAC office and people point accusing fingers at CAC, stressing that it is high time both bodies create awareness so that people can know the importance and position of the law.
Seriki noted that the Companies and Allied Matters Act, which has already been approved and endorsed by the national assembly, now awaiting the president’s assent, was a fundamental and positive development “And with a fora like this, people will become more aware of the developments,” he said.
Seni Adio, SAN, Chairman of the NBA-SBL, who spoke earlier on reform initiatives by the NBA-SBL said, “We are very much involved with respect to the enactment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act. It is a very revolutionary bill and once that bill is signed by Mr President it will further help ease of doing business in Nigeria.
“The NBA-SBL has always been at the forefront in trying to enhance the proficiency of commercial lawyers in Nigeria. SBL advocates for lawyers to become specialists, so that people become experts in their given areas of work and can provide legal services efficiency with expertise in the commercial space.”
He further disclosed that the forum, which is the third (3rd) the NBA-SBL is organising in collaboration with the CAC, will be held annually, as the Section intends to sustain its partnership with the commission.
He added that expectations of the business law community is for the CAC to continue to be innovative and revolutionary. “Since the current registrar general resumed office, he has been a solution provider, problem solver, accessible and I think that will permeate down. So, we expect that great things will continue to emerge from the commission,” he said.
Speaking during a fire-side chat with the vice chair of the NBA-SBL, the registrar general of the CAC, Garba Abubakar, said since he took over as the registrar general, he has identified areas that require urgent reforms.
“We are currently doing a review of our checklist and guidelines to make it more business friendly and to remove unnecessary bottlenecks that slows down our processes and procedures. So, what we have done is that most of the requirements that were alien to the law have been removed.
“We have simplified the procedures especially on name search and reservations and consent for restricted names. Lawyers can do their transactions with CAC seamlessly. We have also looked at the current restrictions on the number of pages a company can submit as memorandum and articles.
“We have increased the number because every serious company cannot operate with just two page articles. So we have increased the numbers to maximum of ten and minimum of five pages of memorandum, so that more activities they intend to engage in can be accommodated in the pages.
“In the long run, we want to have an end to end electronic solution, such that the company can file changes and returns and financial information electronically without having to visit CAS,” Abubakar explained.
Also speaking at the event, the immediate past chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law, ( NBA-SBL), Olumide Akpata, stated that the continuous collaboration between the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the NBA-SBL is key to improving commercial law practice in Nigeria.
He said, “When we received feedback that legal practitioners were having major issues with the operations of the CAC. We
approached the commission for establish the joint working committee and we created a platform where all the issues were put on the table and solutions were being proffered,” he said. Whilst commending the new leadership of CAC, describing the current registrar general (RG) as dynamic.
On the objectives of NBASBL, he said the SBL has continued to improve the practice of commercial law in Nigeria and to make sure that commercial lawyers are competent and local lawyers are able to do the work locally.