Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has moved its hours of transaction of business with the public from 4pm to 7pm in the bid to meet with the 60 days National Action Plan approved by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).
The move was part of new provisions contained in the Third Amendment to the Companies Regulation 2012 approved by the minister of industry, trade and investment released this week by the CAC.
The Third Amendment provides that the hours of transaction with the public “shall be from 9am to 7pm in the Head Office and such other offices as the Commission may designate.”
Furthermore, customers requesting for name approval shall be attended to within 12 hours from submission. Request for consent for restricted names will be done within 24 hours from submission of duly completed application.
Services such as registration of companies, business names and incorporated trustees will also take 24 hours from submission of duly completed documents, while all post registration filings will as well require 24 hours from submission of duly completed documents.
The amendment is coming barely a week after Commission announced that members of the public that want to incorporate companies can now scan and upload their incorporation documents for processing on the commission’s website.
By moving it online, the CAC invariably eliminated the stress of having to ship the documents physically to their offices. Prior to now, customers were expected to physically submit about 8 documents to any of the offices of the commission across the country.
Apart from the stress, it also reduces the cost incurred from shipment or transportation. Finally, it nearly removes third party involvement in the incorporation process.
The 60 Days National Plan is an inter-ministerial, inter-government plan being driven by the Enabling Business Environment Secretariat (EBES) and implemented by the various ministry department agencies (MDAs). Apart from the National Assembly, governments of Kano and Lagos states, other key stakeholders include the private sector, which has also been designated clear deliverables on the initiative.
The plan, which began running from February 21, will end on 18 April, 2017. The government is expecting that by April, the number of days it takes to register a business in Nigeria would have reduced from 10 to 2. Secondly, the number of days required to get construction permits reduced from 42 to 20 and the number of days required registering property reduced from 77 top 30.
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