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Published: 30 March 2014

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source: World Investiment News - http://www.winne.com/africa/nigeria/topinterviews/2004/almustapha.php

INTERVIEW WITH
MR. AHMED ALMUSTAPHA
CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION
 
Interview for eBizguides, February 26th, 2004
Can you present us your organisation, how it was formed and how has it evolved throughout the years?
Before it was made independent, the Corporate Affairs Commission was a part of the Ministry of Commerce. In the year 1990, it was made an independent organisation. It is responsible for the registration, formation and regulation of the administration of companies generally including winding up of companies. We also offer other incorporation services like certified true copies of companies’ documents, registration or change of names, debentures and mortgages of all companies, etc… The idea is that members of the general public should be able to conduct searches to know whether a company is healthy or not and know the current liabilities of the companies they are interested in. We also do other ancillary services like increase in share capital of companies starting from the formation and administration through the winding up of all companies in Nigeria.
 
How many companies are registered in Nigeria?
Company registration is a continuous exercise. We now have over 500,000 registered companies dating from 1912 since the colonial time. But from the time the company’s registry became independent in 1990 to date, around 280,000 companies have been registered. We register on the average, 300 companies a day. We have different types of companies. What we call Business Name is known in some countries as Sole Proprietorship. Most of the accounting firms, law firms, some petty traders and petty contractors register themselves under Business Names because it is simpler, less cumbersome, less expensive and implies less documentation. Because of the advantages, many people go for that form of business registration. The disadvantage however, is that you don’t have the legal protection afforded by law, as do the Limited Liability Companies. We have almost 1.5 million Business Names registered.
 
What can you tell us about the infrastructure of the CAC in itself?
We have a central registry in the Head Office in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. In addition, we have 15 branches and we are opening 4 more this year. The current fifteen branches are located in Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Owerri, Uyo, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Jos, Makurdi, Yola, Asaba and Port Harcourt. We intend to open four more this year in Bauchi to be opened in March, Calabar in Cross Rivers State, Akure in Ondo State and Ilorin in Kwara State making it 19 before the end of this year. At the moment we have about 980 members of staff all the branches included.
 
What are the procedures a foreign investor must follow to register its company in Nigeria?
Anybody wishing to register a company in Nigeria is welcome. The liberalization of our laws has enabled foreigners who wish to establish companies to do so. If all shareholders are foreigners, registration is still possible. Even if they are resident outside of Nigeria, they can still own companies here without having to come to Nigeria and therefore do not require a resident permit.
We have improved our registration process. All forms of businesses are registered within five working days. In addition to that, we have also set up machinery for a one-day registration system in the event that anybody requires a very urgent registration. We are even in the process of setting up our online registration so that people or interested investors can sit down from and, from the comfort of their homes anywhere, access the internet and submit their application for registration. The online system is already in place and before the end of this year we will commission the system.
 
According to you, what are the competitive advantages of registering a company in Nigeria rather than in other neighbouring African countries?
Nigeria is a large economy and everybody in business wants to access such a market. Consumption is definitely greater than in the rest of the countries in Africa. That is definitely the greatest incentive for someone to come here and establish its business in Nigeria. We are complementing that natural endowment God has given Nigeria by reviewing and liberalizing our registration processes in such a way that anyone can register without fear.
 
Unfortunately Nigerians have the reputation to be engaged in some malpractices and fraudulent businesses abroad, what role do you play in promoting the legitimacy of business in Nigeria?
What we are doing right now is to check fraud in corporate organisations. Naturally, most of the companies that indulge in those kinds of business are not registered with us but fraudulently procure our registration certificate ready to show to anyone who asks for it. Our priority now, beginning April is to issue certificates with security features. Right now it is printed on a plain sheet of paper with just some decorations that anybody can forge. But we have designed a certificate with security features which would be very difficult to forge. The security features are such that even from a photocopy, you will easily know whether it is a forged certificate or not because our genuine photocopy has some peculiar watermarks showing the word “copy” all over the paper. This will help to get rid of those people going about with fake company registration papers deceiving embassies and innocent businessmen.
In the long run, we plan to recall all existing certificates and replace them with the certificates with the mentioned security features. By this, we plan to eliminate the ones that are not legitimately registered. That exercise will also give us the opportunity to update our records concerning the details of registered companies.
 
How will other people in the world know the legitimacy of your certificates?
There are two ways to do that. The first is the certificate itself. This would have some security features. The second would be through online consultation. This would enable everyone to search our database online. The system is not yet active, but we are going to make it active before the end of this year. Right now all our VSAT connections are ready as well as the Wide Area Network connection with all our offices. We are at the testing phase to make sure the system works properly. Right now, embassies and other organisations send us letters to verify the existence of some companies and we do oblige them with the answers, though manually. Our plan for the immediate future is to enable people to do their queries online.
Talking about compliance, once all our activities are computerized we certainly would require less staff to do what we currently do. We would then use the surplus capacity to enhance our compliance activities. We would be able to monitor the companies through their annual returns and physical inspections. By the time we are fully computerized, we will be able to have enough manpower to deploy to the field for the purposes of inspection and that would also strengthen our compliance efforts and contribute towards the elimination of the problems in the conduct of business in Nigeria.
 
What is your vision for the Corporate Affairs Commission in the next 10 years?
Our vision is that ten years from now, we would have made the Nigerian business registry a world class companies’ registry, such that you either own a company that is complying with the law or you just do not.
 
We would like to know more about the man behind the CAC and what has been your major achievement in the CAC?
My name is Ahmed Al Mustapha. I come from Bauchi State. I graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1978 with Bachelor of Laws. I was at the Nigeria Law school in 1978/79 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1979. After my National service, I went back to Bauchi State where I joined the judiciary. I was in active private practice for 11 years until 1993 when I joined the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), responsible for insuring Banks Deposits. I rose to the rank of Board Secretary and Legal Adviser with the NDIC before I was appointed as the Registrar General at the CAC in June/July 2001.
When I came in the CAC, I inherited a very archaic office with manual typewriters. The office was badly located with acute shortage of office accommodation and an environment not conducive to staff efficiency and customer comfort. There was also a human resource problem. When I came in, I had to tackle these problems one by one starting from the office accommodation. My next focus was to review our incorporation processes. Prior to this time, a file had to pass through about 19 steps (availability search, verification, assessment, payment, transfer, auditing, jacketing, minuting for approval, approval, registration, typing of certificate, minuting for signature, signing the certificate, dispatch and computerization, etc…) before completion. We removed some processes, merged others and grouped the personnel in teams for efficiency with each team responsible for the applications for registration assigned to it. For instance, it used to take a minimum of three months to register a non-governmental organisation (NGO). But now, it takes an average of weeks. The third area that attracted my attention was the computerisation of the operations of the Commission. While the fourth was the re-orientation, training and re-training of the members of staff.
Our dream is to continue to improve until we become a world-class registry such that foreign investors will not have difficulties in setting up business in Nigeria, as the CAC is the gateway to business in this country. We want to open the gate and make it easy for the people to access the Nigerian economy.
 
(eBizguides cannot be held responsible for the content of unedited transcripts)

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Written by Super User

Category: Uncategorised

Published: 16 November 2013

Hits: 45038

This website is anchored on the values of knowledge sharing and friendship. It shall therefore seek to educate, inform and intertain its audience. Indeed, it shall aspire to become a veritable platform for discourse and lively interaction aimed at articulation and synthesization of issues in the genuine development of mankind.
 
At this initial stage however, the website will feature tit-bits on my person, complemented with some of my literary works and a picture gallery. Also, a weblink will in due course be provided to www.bauchionline.com, the novel website of Bauchi people of Nigeria which I have the privildge of founding.
 
While I pledge to make this wesite as lively as I possibly can, I would certainly welcome constructive criticsm and positive suggestions. I would also welcome contributions that would enrich the site in the form of stimulating articles particularly historical, legal, social, economy, philosophy, science and technology and ofcourse, information and communications technology.
 
I count heavily on your active participation and support.
Once again, welcome to www.ahmedalmustapha.com

Best Wishes,
AHMED ALMUSTAPHA