CSOs Ask Presidency, N’Assembly to Resolve Contentious Issues in CAMA

Civil society organisations (CSOs) have asked the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the National Assembly and the Presidency to resolve all contentious issues contained in the amended Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020.

The CSOs, also, urged the CAC to rigorously implement the relevant provisions of the

CAMA 2020 relating to the establishment of the beneficial ownership register, including adopting appropriate regulations to give full effect to them.

They made these recommendations at a public consultation on the establishment of Beneficial Ownership Register enshrined in the CAMA 2020 in Ikeja on Thursday.

Among others, the CSOs comprise Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC),

Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Open Government Partnership Secretariat and African Centre for Leadership and Strategic Development.

During the public consultation, Executive Director of CISLAC, Mr. Auwal Rafsanjani observed that responsible institutions such as the CAC, National Assembly and Presidency should resolve all contentious issues in the amended law.

Rafsanjani said: “We were already facing sanctions from the European Union for the inexistence of anti-money laundering legislation.

“While we see and hear of prosecutions of individuals and entities involved in the #panamapapers leaks and the #wikileaks among others, there seems to be no legal framework that enables the convictions of all that was involved from Nigeria.

“Aside from the fear of the international community, concealing the beneficial owners costs the lives of our fellow countrymen. For instance, terrorists use international financial systems to sustain their operations.

“Without transparent ownership of Nigerian and international companies operating within Nigeria, we will not be able to stop the bleeding through illicit financial outflows which is perpetually on a geometric progressive increase year on year, which costs us annually $17 billion with emphasis on the backbone of our economy, the oil and gas industry.

“As long as wrong incentives and dysfunctional supervision dominate our national financial systems, consequences in the form of terrorism financing, trans-national organized crime, tax evasion and illegal enrichment of politically exposed persons will prevail,” Rafsanjani observed.