By Dipo Olowookere
Acting Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Ms Azuka Azinge, has revealed that the agency plans to reduce the amount charged for the registration of companies and businesses in Nigeria.
At the moment, the official cost of registering a company with the CAC is N10,500, but Ms Azinge said plans are underway to reduce this to N5,500.
The CAC chief, speaking recently with newsmen at a 3-day management and planning retreat in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, disclosed this was part of efforts by the commission to improve the ease of doing business in the country.
Represented by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Moses Adagusu, the Registrar-General also added that the commission had successfully upgraded from a manual to an online registration process nationwide as at February, 2018, noting that “reforms like this have made it possible to complete a company registration process within 24 hours in the country”.
The Corporate Affairs Commission was promulgated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) act of 1990 to be responsible for the formation, regulation and management of Companies in Nigeria.
The commission was set up as an independent body to correct the anomalies and operational inefficiencies of her predecessor which was a department of the trade and investment ministry.
Apart from registering and profiling businesses and companies in the country, the Corporate Affairs commission is also constitutionally responsible for making sure that business owners and their trustees play by the rules in their daily activities, supervise incorporation and winding up procedures as well as investigating the activities of businesses and companies whenever public interests demand such.
A cross section of participants at the retreat expressed their satisfaction with the reforms at the commission in recent times. They harped on the need for Nigeria as an emerging economy to come out with similar policies so as to create more jobs for its teeming populace.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Adedapo Adesanya