Company incorporation time may reduce to one hour

to improve ease of doing business

There are hopes that Nigeria could soon reduce the length of time it takes to incorporate companies from the present 24 hours to one hour as two critical agencies in the process – the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) engage in modalities to make this happen.

The two agencies want to speed up the electronic stamping interface for customers wishing to register their companies on the Company Registration Portal (CRP) of the CAC, a process they propose to accomplish by December 31, 2015.

Mahmud Bello, CAC registrar-general, Monday, said the interface would enable customers to pay for stamp duties through the CRP and get the documents stamped, instead of taking the document to the FIRS office for stamping.

Globally, Nigeria stands at 129 in the ranking of 189 economies on the World Bank ease of starting a business, as the country battles a cumbersome process of getting businesses incorporated.

The World Bank latest ease of doing business report finds, for instance, that it takes a company as long as seven days to prepare the requisite incorporation documents and pay the required stamp duty.

But the CAC boss raised the hope that such cooperation between the FIRS and CAC would help cut down, the “period for incorporation of companies will be reduced to one hour.”

These measures, he said, will increase the level of competitiveness of the country and improve its rating in the World Bank doing business report.

He stressed the need to speed up the process, and also urged for closer cooperation between the two agencies when he paid a courtesy visit on the acting executive chairman FIRS, Babatunde Fowler in his office.

The registrar-general reiterated the need for continuous improvement of the investment climate in the country, which he said could be achieved through making registration services more efficient and cheaper.

He emphasised the need to speed up the electronic stamping interface for customers wishing to register their companies on the Company Registration Portal (CRP) of the Commission, which should be accomplished by December 31, 2015.

Fowler noted that with the collaboration, more direct investment would flow into the country, thereby contributing to the economic growth of the nation.