As a
result, business registration now takes between one to three months, while
business name availability search takes more than one week.
During
the course of the investigation, this reporter applied for business name
availability search at the CAC office at Alausa, Ikeja. He was asked to check
back in nine days. When he sought to know why, the attendant at the
availability section responded
, “because it is not ready”.
Stakeholders,
who spoke to Vanguard about this development, said that the process is
frustrating and it discourages business owners from applying for business
registration.
Recounting
his ordeal in this regard, a business owner, Mr. Yemi said that he is yet to
complete the process of registering his business, since he commenced three months
ago.
He
said: “The whole thing is frustrating. I have been pursuing this registration
for more than three months now. At some point I stopped and when I came back
they demanded I do a re-validation. Now I have done that but they can’t find my
documents. I have complained but they asked me to check back.”
Another
customer who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was an agent who helps
people to register. He acknowledged that the Commission had been meeting the 24
hours deadline immediately after the service was launched but since late 2013,
it has been having problems with its server. He said as a result of that,
availability search now takes more than a week, sometimes up to three weeks.
This
was confirmed by a notice at the Commission’s customer service section, dated
27th of January, 2014. In the notice, the Commission apologised to customers for its inability to
continue with the 24 hours business registration due to server problem. It
added that customers should bear with the Commission as the problem would soon
be rectified and the 24 hours service restored.
A
lady attendant at the customer service desk also confirmed that due to server
problem, the 24 hours registration has been put on hold. She said the
Commission was working very hard to rectify the problem and return to 24 hours
service.
24 hours registration mere propaganda
However,
another agent, Olajire Oladiran dismissed the 24 hours business registration as
a mere propaganda, saying there was never anything like that in the first place.
Oladiran
who is an Executive Director in a firm of Chartered Secretaries lamented the
inability of the Commission to keep to its promise to offer 24 hour business
name availability search at least.
He
said, “The 24 hour registration is propaganda. It was the Minister of Trade and
Investment, Mr. Olsegun Aganga who flagged this so-called 24 hours business
registration sometimes in 2012. But then no one knew how they managed to do
that for few weeks and then stopped. From November/December, 2013 they stopped
and have been making only excuses and promises.”
While
unveiling the 24 hours business registration in November, 2012, the Minister of
Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga said that, “The target is to ensure
that companies are registered within two hours and to institute a vibrant and
transparent companies’ registry, where services will be user-friendly.”
He
had also at the time directed that a complaints register be opened for anyone
who is not able to get his company registered within 24 hours. This he said was
to show that, “We mean business and that we care about our customers.”
Oladiran
however explained that despite such promises, what the Commission was able to
accomplish within 24 hours was business name availability search.
“Within
that period, it was possible that you could drop your availability search today
and within 24 hours really, if you check your mail, you will see it and then
you wouldn’t have to go back to the CAC office. It was a wonderful experience.
“But
you see, all over the place CAC is advertising 24 hour registration but in
reality the registration process would not have been completed within that time
frame. But the 24 hour period was important for the availability search,
because once the name is available, you will continue with the rest of the
registration. However along the line, the thing stopped and all we have been
hearing is that the server has problem.
“Right
now, sometimes availability search takes between three weeks and one month. But
in all, the truth is that the registration does not take 24 hours; only
availability search could be possible within that time.”
He
however explained that what CAC may mean by the 24 hours business registration
may be 24 hours express registration.
He
said that, “In express registration, a customer is required to pay N50, 000 in
addition to the regular fee, to have the registration completed in one day. But
then because of their server problem, the 24 hours express registration is not
even feasible at the moment. Don’t forget that the 24 hours excludes the time
you have waited for availability search to come out. It also excludes the days
you waited for incorporation. So in reality there is nothing like 24 hours
registration,” he said.
He
noted that if the server worked efficiently, a business name search should not
take more than three or four hours and within that period that they were able
to offer 24 hours registration. He added that when the system was operating,
his company was able to register up to six names and was able to get the
certificates of incorporation for the companies within one week.
Delay,
bad business for operators
Oladiran
further noted that this delay in business registration process has negative
implications both for the CAC, operators and the Nigerian economy.
“This
is taking a toll on the integrity of operators. This is because if a client is
hearing of 24 hours registration from CAC and yet they are not even able to get
availability within three days, this will sow doubts in their minds and the
integrity of the operator will appear questionable,” he lamented, adding that
the trend will further lead to loss of business confidence.
Foreign
investors disappointed
He
said, “There was this particular incident, the clients came from Hong Kong,
they came through Benin Republic to Nigeria and they came through us and
initiated a name search. They were waiting for the name search result to come
out before they go back to Benin Republic, from where they will head back to
Hong Kong. But they waited for three days, the result didn’t come out.
They
waited for one week and the result still didn’t come out. They were very angry
and left. Their contact person who gave us the job was infuriated and
questioned our competence. At the end of the day, everyone was frustrated. They
wasted their time, we missed the business opportunity and Nigeria lost them as
investors.”
He
added that, “This is also leading to loss of revenue on the part of CAC because
any availability search initiated is paid for and if a particular name is not
available, a client may have to pay again to initiate another search. The
implication is that the more names they search for, the more money they make
but now that availability takes like three weeks, it means they will generate
less revenue from name search.”
He
noted that the idea of prompt and timely registration is essential if
government wants entrepreneurship to have a ripple effect on the economy, since
every business ought to be legally registered for that to happen.
Implications
for Nigerian economy
Oladiran
said that the inability of CAC to offer prompt business registration has severe
implications for the Nigerian economy if things continue the way it is,
including being unable to attract foreign investment that Nigeria currently
craves.
He
said, “One of the implications for the Nigerian economy is that the investors
we are trying to attract will not be attracted. This is because business is
done on trust and once the trust is not there from the beginning, things will
not work out properly. So the investors we are trying to attract may not rally
come.
“Also,
money that should be generated and channeled to infrastructural development
will not come. For example, if operators are supposed to register like ten
companies in a month but because of this delay of availability not out in two
weeks or four weeks, and we register one out of the ten companies that we are
supposed to register, tell me how the operators or CAC themselves can make more
money?
This
is because the more companies that are registered by CAC, the more they are
better off financially. On the other hand, supposing you give me a name today,
and by tomorrow the result is out showing that the name is not available, there
are chances that you will initiate another search, thus paying another fee,
meaning that they have generated income from availability twice in one week but
if there is a delay in availability search, income generation will be sparse on
the part of both the operators and CAC and the Nigerian economy will not
attract investors as it should. It also discourages more people from coming
forward to register.”
CAC
should apologise to Nigerians
Oladiran
said given the fact that CAC was unable to keep their promise of 24 hours
business registration, it should have come out to say so and seek help but
instead they let people suffer unnecessary inconveniences. He said as a result,
CAC should tender unreserved apology to the general public.
“This
idea of advertising twenty four hours and not being able to meet up with it is
pesky and frustrating. In fact, what I expect CAC to do is to apologise to the
general public. If you have a problem and you come out and say so, people who
have the solution will come out to help.”
However,
when contacted, the Head Public Affairs of the commission, Mr. Williams
Churchill who initially declined to comment, denied that the Commission was
having challenges with its server and that the 24 hours registration was still
effective.
When
asked about the notice posted at the Lagos office of the Commission at Alausa,
Ikeja apologising to customers for the
Commission’s inability to continue with
the 24 hours registration due to server problem, he denied knowledge of such
statement insisting that the Commission still offers 24 hours service.
According
to him, “I can tell you that the 24 hours registration is still working. There
may be technical issues sometimes but that doesn’t mean that the 24 hours
registration is not working. As for the statement apologising for inability of
the Commission to continue with 24 hours registration, he said, “I am not aware
of such notice.”
Asked
if that does not imply a kind of disconnect between the headquarters and the
zonal office, he declined to comment and then hung up the phone. Further
attempt to contact him proved abortive.
Vanguard
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