The CAC has Introduced New Rules for Pre and Post-Incorporation Processes

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) says it is modifying some of its business registration rules. The specific changes concern the pre-incorporation and post-incorporation processes which business entities must go through as legally recognized corporate entities in Nigeria.

One tweak to the registration process allows users of the CAC portal to check for names that conflict with their proposed company name before reserving it. Regulators say this should help reduce the number of denied name reservations, and the costs that registrants could incur for a failed reservation.

Users will now be directed to upload their signed incorporation documents on the portal when they have paid for the filing fees and stamp documents. They will also be printing the Certificate of Incorporation themselves.

Companies are also now required to have a valid email through which the CAC will carry on its correspondences with them. The body will be communicating confirmation of post-incorporation filings and other important details via this means.

Aspects of post-incorporation procedures have been altered. The CAC’s statement suggests that its portal’s post-incorporation segment will become operational before the end of August.

After a company has been incorporated, it will get a message from the CAC (through the email it registered with them) asking it to create profiles for portal users who will engage with the CAC on its behalf. The company is expected to provide details about the users and their email addresses.

When this is done, the users designated by the company will receive an email containing login details. Those details give them access to the portal to process post-incorporation filings (such as annual returns, change of the company’s name, etc) on the company’s behalf.

Requests for Certified True Copies (CTCs) of relevant documents will also be made online and printed out by the user. All documents issued by the CAC (such as Certificates of Incorporation and CTCs) will have electronic stamps with QR codes on them. This means they can be scanned with a mobile phone to determine their authenticity.

When scanned, the QR codes of genuine documents will display the important details of those documents on the mobile phone. Users will need to have a QR code scanner to do this. It can be downloaded from any major mobile app store. 

Other notable changes include an adjustment to the cost of CTCs of Annual Returns. Until recently, companies have paid ₦2,000 for the CTC of the Annual Returns form CAC 10, the Company Audited Account, and the CAC’s Letter. They will now be required to pay ₦2,000 for each document.   

The CAC has implemented a number of procedural changes in the past few years, as it tries to meet the demands of the contemporary business environment. It recently slashed its registration fees by 50% to allow more local entrepreneurs to register their businesses in an extended program that ended this August.

The regulatory body says its revised rules are a part of its overall drive to keep up with the times.

Featured image source: Daily Post NG

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ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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