Nigeria concludes steps to achieve 3 hours company registration time

Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is in the final steps of introducing an Electronic Stamping (e-stamping) module into its portal. The e-stamping would ensure that company registration is concluded within just two-three hours as against the several days it usually takes.

The process would be concluded before the end of the year, BusinessDay has been told and it is entirely aimed is to create a seamless registration process and further reduce time and cost of registration of companies and other post incorporation processes in the country.

This is a part of major reforms in the Corporate Affairs Commission’s operations, making it possible for customers to pay for stamp duties and equally stamp their company registration documents electronically on the CAC Company Registration Portal (CRP).

“By the time the integration is concluded, company registration in Nigeria can be carried out within three hours, which is the best globally,” assures Bello Mahmud, Registrar-General and Chief Executive Officer at the CAC.

This means that customers can stamp documents on the CRP after completing their forms without manually taking them to the stamp duties office of the Federal Inland Revenue service.

As done in most countries, paying stamp duty is an essential part of almost any transactions people carry out with the Nigerian government especially in company registration.

However, the process, for long, had involved too many people and requires a tiring attention to detail which discourages even the most optimistic people.

Electronic Stamping, a computer based application and a secured way of paying Non-Judicial stamp duty to the Government is the most convenient way the CAC is now deploying to simplify that process.

The Registrar General confirms that with the collaboration with the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Commission is almost close to integration of e-stamping module into the Commission’s company registration portal (CRP).

e-Stamping is the latest on-line pay-and-file service in the CAC, meaning that if you are registered as a business certificate holder, you can use e-Stamping to file stamp duty returns electronically, make on-line payments to CAC/FIRS and receive a stamping certificate. You will be able to file a stamp duty return, pay the stamp duty and receive the stamp in the same on-line transaction. You can also access e-Stamping anywhere, anytime to file a stamp duty return and payment.

The payment is done through the purchase of stamp paper and is proof that the government has been paid its share, for future reference.

The Registrar-General says that the federal government has introduced e-stamping, which the CAC is championing to tackle counterfeiting and make the payment of stamp duty easier and glitch free.

Justifying the need for this partnership with FIRS, Mahmud says it was part of major reforms in the Commission’s operations to make it possible for customers to pay for stamp duties and stamp their company registration documents electronically on the remodeled portal.

Mahmud said customers can stamp their documents on the CRP after completing their forms without manually taking them to stamp duties office of FIRS.

The e-stamping therefore completes the process of the Company Registration Portal which when fully developed will serve as a one-stop company’s registration software capable  of handling the stamping of incorporation documents, some post incorporation filings and other matters without users stepping out of their homes or offices.

“That is the target, that is when the benefits of the CRP can be enjoyed,” he adds, confirming the e-stamping is almost done.

“Infact, it is our own initiative. I have been here for a long time and we have been accommodating the FIRS in our office. They have an office for stamp duty in all our state offices including here in Abuja. This means that when customers come to register companies, they go to FIRS desk, they will give you assessment, and you expect that wen they pay, they move to the next table to file your document.

“But it doesn’t happen that way. What happens is that, when you go to FIRS office, they will give you a bank teller to go outside the commission to go and pay, then wait for the bank to notify them that you have paid. Then that takes a day or two before they now stamp your document and then you move to the next line which is CAC.

“We saw that this was not good enough and said, why can’t we automate this stamping. Why can’t the system stamp this document? We have been on it for a very long time but we recently got the buy in of FiRS,” Mahmud explains.

The benefits of using e-stamps are many. e-Stamp Certificate can be generated within minutes. The e-Stamp Certificate generated is tamper proof and its authenticity can be checked through the inquiry module.  The e-Stamp Certificate generated also has a Unique Identification Number. Another benefit is that the e-stamp certificate can be checked by any person through the Corporate Affairs Commission website.

Mahmud is optimistic that the e-stamping module would help drive government’s efforts at improving the country’s poor ease of doing business rankings.

“We got the government to intervene because of this ease of doing business thing,

and to help ease stamping. So if you come to CAC now, you will pay for both stamping and registration. The money for stamping goes to FIRS while the money for Registration will go into CAC account. Then, the system will automatically generate an acknowledgement that your document has been stamped which will be used by CAC to process further documents for incorporation.

“If that is complete which we hope before the new set is completed, registration can be done within issue of 2 or 3 hours in this country,” he reassures in an interview with  BusinessDay.

“With that, anybody from anywhere can create a company now. Let’s say you are in UK, US, Europe or Japan, you can own a company in Nigeria even if you are a foreigner or you are staying abroad.

“What happens now is that if you register a company from abroad, you still have to come to Nigeria and have your documents stamped. But with this process now, you can have your stamp duty right from, say United States online. So, the way you are treated from the United Sates is the way somebody from Sokoto is treated. It is the same process. That has eased doing business in this country further.”

According to him, “the government has agreed, the software has been developed, but that the only thing now is to integrate it with the CAC system software. Before the end of the year, I trust that will be completed so that people can now access it so that customers can now choose what you want.

Explaining how the system would work,  the Registrar General notes, “If you want stamp duty, you click it, the stamp duty will show, then you pay online to stamp it. You then go to the next thing you want to do. Do you want to do searching, if you say yes, it will show you how to search and how much you are going to pay, then you go online and through the process and within hours, the certificate is out. That is where we are now,” he explains.

The Registrar-General also said that the CAC has put in place measures to create log-in details for each company that is registered by it.  The log-in details he said would ensure that only authorized persons have access to the company’s profile to enable the operators make changes in the portal.

Such changes, Mahmud said would include change of directors, appointment of secretaries, and increase in share capital. The objective, according to him is to prevent corporate hijack and to ensure that only the right people make changes to the company’s records.

The Registrar General also indicated that the CAC has commenced post incorporation transactions with their customers.

This means registered companies can make changes like Directors, online.

“You pay online, send your documents and they will be treated. If you want to increase your share capital, you can also do it online. If you want to appoint secretaries, you can pay online and get your certificate online.

“That is part of what we have started to do, though not all of them, because it is still an ongoing process. But we have started the online post incorporation transactions with our customers.

“Don’t forget that we have now said that customers can do registration themselves without having to go to lawyers unlike before. Previously if you want to do incorporation in CAC, you have to go through a lawyer, a chartered Accountant or a Secretary. But because of these poor ease of doing business indicators, government said no, that is not good enough. If somebody wants to do it himself and he can handle it, then, why not, as far as he is a Director or a Shareholder, he can go ahead,” he noted.

And according to him, that has reduced the cost of doing business by more than half because those middlemen interferences like the lawyers who can charge even more than they pay to the Commission have been eliminated.. “So that has been done already,” the RG maintained.

He also explained that the Corporation system has the documentations of the companies registered, though not all.

The Registrar General explains that they are now in the process of capturing those details in their database such that anybody who wants to make a search can do it online.

“No need to come to CAC and get the physical file and do the search manually. By so doing in the past, some customers connived to change our records, when somebody is not looking, they just remove a paper. But with this digitalized record, which takes rid of physical files, you don’t have the chance of removing any paper from our file.”

He said when it is completed, customers would be able to ask for information from their own home, pay and get the information they want.

They would also be able to pay for the Company Tax Certificate (CTC) and then print in the comfort of their homes or offices. “That is where we are heading, we are not yet there.”

He said they are also restructuring their operations in such a way that all other offices in the country are also able to seal the incorporation, receive applications and complete registration processes instantly without recourse to Abuja, Kano or other branch offices that are enabled to handle such transactions for now.

He said, “If you go to file your document in Sokoto, Sokoto may have to either send them to us or they use Kano office, that is one of those offices that are issuing same day. But when we are ready, Sokoto will be doing the same thing like Abuja is doing.

“Which means if you go to Sokoto and file your documents, they will remain there. It will be scanned and processed, approval will be given, you get certificate there. That is what we are working on.”

“These are some of the hitches we are addressing now. I assure you that before I leave this office, God willing next year, all these things will be in place,” the Registrar General further assures.

Stella Enenche