The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has said that everyone using their names for businesses and making income must register with the Commissions, stressing that ignorant of the law is not an excuse.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the CAC to have also said for a business to take place in Nigeria, it must be registered with the CAC and that failure to do so is a crime in Nigeria.
Registrar-General of CAC, Hussaini Magaji said this on Tuesday at a meeting with OPAY Digital Services Ltd held to commence the registration of the businesses in Abuja.
Magaji disclosed the CAC is collaborating with OPAY Digital Services Ltd. to register an additional 300,000 small businesses.
According to CAC, this is in line with the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020. Magaji stressed that the move is also in line with his mission to register more than 20 million small businesses by the end of 2024.
Recall the Commission on February 8 partnered with Moniepoint to commence the registration of two million small businesses.
”The purpose of this meeting is to enforce the provision of the law, which mandates that for a business to take place in Nigeria, it must be registered with the CAC. Failure to do so is a crime in Nigeria. In the course of this, we are able to create jobs.
“Last week, we were at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, where we accommodated two million small businesses for registration. Today, we are here to receive another bulk of small businesses,” Magaji said.
The CAC boss said the Commission decided to accommodate the registration to regularise them into the system, in line with the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
According to him, the president is targeting to provide 50 million youth with jobs, to provide access to wealth, stamp poverty out of the system, and ensure job creation for the youth.
Magaji urged everyone using their names for businesses and making income to register with the CAC as ignorant of the law was not an excuse.
“Bring yourself to full registration. If you are a content creator on the internet, you have followership, and you are gaining from it, you must register.
“That is the provision of the law. And we are all out to enforce the provision of the law.
“That is why we have different classes of registration, company, business loan registration. There are various classes of registration that can accommodate any kind of business you are doing,” he said.
Earlier, the Managing Director, Opay Digital Services , Dauda Gotring expressed delight at the opportunity to bring on board unregistered businesses into the formal sector.
According to Gotring, the numbers being registered are mostly agents and merchants that have been using their individual names.
He said the corporate businesses normally would have strictly followed CAC rules and registration processes.
”We have only 300,000 names that we want to regularise. We are encouraging them to regularise, which is what we need, because that way, they expand the tax net.
“And of course, we also encourage Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), small businesses, which will create jobs, and of course, stimulate the economy, basically.
“So, I thank you for this opportunity and assure that we will cooperate fully with CAC and all their guidelines, so that all those that have not met the guidelines will fall in line properly,” he said.
The managing director said the financial service provider would collaborate with the CAC to ameliorate the cost of registration for the small businesses.
