By Yinka Kolawole
The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has opened a portal to enable members of the public to personally conduct company or business name search free of charge in a bid to make the process of registering businesses in Nigeria cheaper, easier and faster.
Acting Register-General of CAC, Lady Azuka Azinge, who disclosed this yesterday in Lagos at the Quarterly Stakeholders’ Forum of the Commission, also said that the Commission can now approve name reservation within 6 hours.
Azinge stated: “The Commission will leave no stone unturned towards simplifying the process of registration and other services. At the moment, any member of the public can do it himself/herself by visiting the Commission’s website: services.cac.gov.ng. Similarly, any member of the public wishing to confirm the legal status of Nigerian companies can visit the Commission’s public search: publicsearch.cac.gov.ng.”
She further said: “The Commission in line with its statutory mandate has deliberately embarked upon several reform initiatives aimed at easing business registration in Nigeria. This explains the Commission’s strategic policies like decentralization of its operations, deployment of the Company Registration Portal (CRP) and the integration of the CRP to the Stamp Duty Portal of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) to further ease the process of company registration.
“The goal is to ensure that every Nigerian has access to online registration especially the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to enable more businesses to come into the formal sector with all the attendant benefits. This is in tandem with the reform agenda of the Federal Government aimed, among other things, at growing the Nigerian economy. through increased economic activities, employment creation, provision of infrastructure and making Nigeria one of the world’s top investment destinations.”
In his remark, President of National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Prince Degun Agboade, attested to the transformation taking place in CAC.
He noted from his personal experience that his company used to run around for tax clearance at the end of every year, but was pleasantly surprised that last year, everything was uploaded without them needing to run after anyone for tax clearance.
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