CAC Warns Against Registering Business Names Without Starting Operations

The Corporate Affairs Commission has advised Nigerians to desist from opening or registering businesses that they had no immediate intention of translating into action.

The Director of Compliance, CAC, Mr Justine Nidia, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday.

Nidia said the commission does not encourage people to go ahead and register companies when they have not developed any business idea that would translate into action.

“It is not advisable to register a company and keep it in your briefcase because that is not helpful to the economy,” he said.

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According to the director, such companies are termed shelf companies and are discouraged from being kept in the register of companies of CAC; thus, they are delisted.

“The idea of delisting companies is that we should not be seen encouraging shelf companies.

“By shelf companies, we mean registered companies that are redundant or dormant; they are not doing anything.

“So they do not have to be on the register of companies. The appropriate thing to do is to remove them or strike them off the register,” Nidia said.

He said the commission had published an initial list of about 100,000 companies to be delisted.

“We gave an initial period of 90 days, which has elapsed, to those who think they will still be in business to file annual returns for them not to be delisted.

“After the initial publication, about 5,000 companies responded to file their annual returns, with the remaining approximately 95,000 to be delisted.

“What we have done recently is to issue another publication, requesting companies that have filed their returns and their names are still on the list to get back to us with evidence.

“So we do not delist a company that already filed its return. So we have given an additional period of one month, after which we will gazette the final list,” Nidia said.

The CAC director commended the efforts of the present government led by President Bola Tinubu to ensure a conducive atmosphere for businesses to thrive in the country.

Nidia said the commission, in line with Tinubu’s mandate, developed a four-point agenda to drive the affairs of CAC.

”The strategic direction contained in the renewed hope agenda informed the need to formulate my four-point agenda aimed at repositioning the commission for greater productivity.

“The four-point agenda is diversification of revenue base, enforcement of compliance, promotion of industrial harmony, and improvement of human capital,” he said.