The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has stated that the corporation is undergoing some reforms as part of efforts to ease business registration as well as improve economic activities in the country.

With Nigeria moving up 24 places in the World Bank’s Doing Business report and also emerging as one of the top 10 most improved economies globally, the federal government affirmed its support for the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to take the country much higher on the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) ladder.

According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the present administration is working closely with the Commission to identify glitches in registration and post registration of businesses in the country to remove all bottlenecks hindering the business community.

Oduwole who stated this at the CAC customer forum in Lagos, commended the CAC for shutting down all its manual registration portals across the 36 states of the federation, pointing out that the complete automation of the pre-registration and registration functions of the CAC will definitely save businesses’ cost and time while also going a long way to reduce the need for human contact.

In her words, “The CAC is dedicated to delivering quality services and adequately deploy its resources both human and material to ensure that it is consistently meeting up with consumer’s expectations.

Specifically in the area of starting a business, the Enabling business environment secretariat supported the CAC to enhance the process of business registration.”

Earlier, the Acting Registrar-General, CAC, Azuka Azinge, said: The forum is held periodically in furtherance of efforts towards deepening communication with our customers and other stakeholders. It provides an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to have a one -on- one interaction with Management of the Commission on service delivery.”

She added that the Commission in line with its statutory mandate has deliberately embarked upon several reform initiatives aimed at easing business registration in Nigeria.

“This explains the Commission’s strategic policies like decentralization of its operations; deployment of the Company Registration Portal (CRP) and the integration of the Company Registration Portal (CRP) to the Stamp Duty Portal of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to further ease the process of company registration.

In her words,” The goal is to ensure that every Nigerian has access to online registration especially the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to enable more businesses to come into the formal sector with all the attendant benefits. This is in tandem with the reform agenda of the Federal Government aimed among other things at growing the Nigerian economy through increased economic activities, employment creation, provision of infrastructure and making Nigeria one of the world’s top investment destinations.”

Also speaking at the event, the Board Chairman, CAC, Dapo Abiodun, reaffirmed the Board’s determination to pursue its mandate vigorously for the benefit of the Nigerian economy.

“The Commission is passionate about Customers and keen on getting feedbacks from you to enable us improve our services to your delight hence, the importance the Commission attaches to this Forum cannot be overemphasized,” he said.