By Oscarline Onwuemenyi

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have resolved to enter into a partnership to simplify and fast-track business registration processes for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), a significant step towards the formalisation of the nation’s largely informal economy.

Under the partnership, SMEDAN would deploy desk officers to CAC’s Head Office and State Offices nationwide to handle registration procedures on behalf of small business operators.

The implication is that small business operators would no longer need to engage lawyers to register their  companies with CAC, a practice that had, hitherto, increased the cost of registration.

The Corporate Affairs Commission, on the other hand would be expected to send its staff to serve as resource persons during SMEDAN’s Entrepreneurship Training Programmes [ETPs] to educate prospective and existing entrepreneurs on business registration issues.

The partnerhip would, therefore, reduce the cost of business registration and make the process faster.

The Director-General of SMEDAN, Alhaji Muhammad Nadada Umar said while receiving a team from the CAC at the SMEDAN headquarters that everything relating to the development of SMEs in the country needed to be fast-tracked to create the right environment for more Nigerians to be self-reliant, especially the restive youths who take to various vices as a result of poverty and unemployment.

Describing the CAC visit as crucial, Alhaji Umar said that like India, Nigeria needed innovation and different incentives for MSMEs to grow and boost the economy, noting that in addition to education, skill acquisition is an important factor to any sustainable enterprise.

He therefore called on the CAC to assist in the areas of advocacy and capacity-building. In his remarks, the Registrar-General of CAC, Alhaji Bello Mahmud, called on SMEDAN to sensitize MSMEs in the country on the need to register their businesses as, by so doing, such businesses can operate legally and also enjoy positive responses in respect of applications submitted to public and private sector organisations for business transactions.

While stressing the need for mutual relationship between the two organisations owing to the vital role both play in the economy of Nigeria, Alhaji Mahmud added that already, the Commission has commenced enforcement/compliance drive to campaign against unregistered businesses, and sensitise banks on the registration of unsecured loan facilities granted by the banks to corporate entities.

Contributing, the Head, Customer Services, Lady Azuka Azinge noted that most small business owners fail to register their businesses because they feel they need so much money to do so.