CAC Concludes Registration of NNPC Limited

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The registration of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has been completed.

Recall that last week, President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the Group Managing Director of the agency, Mr Mele Kyari, to begin the process of incorporating the organisation in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) he signed into law on August 16, 2021.

Section 53(1) of the law mandated the Minister of Petroleum Resources, who incidentally is Mr Buhari, to cause for the incorporation of the NNPC Limited within six months of the enactment of the PIA in consultation with the Minister of Finance on the nominal shares of the company.

Speaking at the quarterly meeting of Heads of Agencies in the Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment in Abuja on Tuesday, the Registrar-General of CAC, Mr Garba Abubakar, announced that the registration was concluded the same day after fulfilling all requirements set for the incorporation of the firm.

Mr Abubakar, while updating the gathering on the digitisation of the trademark and patent registry, which was being pursued by the CAC in a bid to ensure synergy and eliminate amongst others possible conflicts, said the project was awaiting clearance from NITDA which was studying the statement of requirement submitted to it.

On the free federal government-sponsored 250,000 business names registration, the Registrar-General said despite suffering a delay from one of the selected aggregators, the commission had less than 3,000 applications to wind up the project and, therefore, gave a commitment to ensure completion by the first week of October 2021.

Declaring open the meeting earlier, the Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Mr Niyi Adebayo, said the event was being held quarterly to asses amongst others the journey so far, challenges and way forward for the agencies under the ministry’s purview.

Mr Adebayo, therefore, charged the agencies to ensure more commitment and dedication to service for the overall growth of the economy.

In her remark, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Ms Maryam Katagum, gave an update on the implementation of the Covid-19 Survival Fund which she described as a tough and challenging experience but said the programme was a huge success and was due for wind up soon.