By PETER EGWUATU

A lot of people do business, but they don’t have a company. They are two different things. A company is an organisation legally registered, according to the laws, with the government to do specific types of business activity.  Hence, before the law and the authorities of the land, a company exists like a person. It can be sued and it can sue. It can also access benefits or services of other organisations like banks and supply companies.

But a business is not recognised as a   company by the law and the authorities, if it is not registered, and hence it cannot sue or be sued, and it cannot enjoy many other benefits. For example, banks don’t open accounts for such businesses and don’t grant them loans. So there is a limit to the economic opportunities that is accessible by such business.

A woman had  a crèche for some years, and she enjoyed huge patronage. But she never registered the crèche as a company, and off course, did not open a bank account for the business. Then she wanted to graduate the crèche into a Nursery School, and saw a property that suits the purpose, but she needed money to lease it.

She appealed to banks and some financial institutions, but they could not help her because she only had a business, she did not have a company.  Yet it is very simple to transform your business into a company. The requirements are not difficult to meet.

Consequently from today, we shall begin a series on the requirements for establishing a company, as stipulated under the various laws governing companies in the country, i.e. the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) section 18 to 40, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Act, the Companies Income Tax Act, Investments and Securities Act 1999, Foreign Exchange Act of 1995 etc.

The first requirement is a name: A name must be chosen for a proposed company. It is the responsibility of the promoters of the company to select a name for their company: A company must have a name, which must not be identical with that of another registered company.

The name also must not be offensive or contain words like chambers of commerce, Nigeria or federal. The promoter (s) of a company must first go to the Corporate Affairs Commission, which is the government agency that registers companies, to verify   if another company is not already bearing that name, and also to verify if the name is suitable.