100,000 companies may lose CAC registration for not Publishing returns to Govt. – Registrar
By Abdullahi Jalalalluden
The Registrar of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Alhaji Garba Abubakar, says the agency has listed 100,000 companies to be delisted from the Commission’s register for not publishing returns to the government.
Alhaji Garba Abubakar made this known in Kano while addressing members of the Civil Society, the Media and other Security Agencies on the use of Beneficial Ownership Register initiatives
He said the law is clear on the procedures, insisting that any company not filing its returns is considered not in operation or inactive and is liable to be delisted .
He noted that the names of the affected companies will soon be published on the Commission’s website and that they will be given four weeks within which to respond, failure of which, they will be struck off the CAC data.
The Registrar maintained that after the first 100,000 companies are delisted, another batch of no fewer than 100,000 defaulting companies will be compiled.
“The consequences of striking out are like a lost property but they are at liberty to reapply on the register to be relisted and if they are not relisted within the next ten years, whatever property they have is lost,” he said.
He stated that the register is not an end in itself but a means to an end, especially as an avenue to check financial crimes carried out using corporate bodies.
“You will agree with me that most procurements are done using companies but the new system provides information about the true owners of these companies so it makes it easier for investigators to know the true owners of these companies, the natural persons that truly control the companies”.
The Registrar added that the programme is for civil society, law environment agencies, media and other stakeholders on the issue of beneficiary ownership registration.
