Modernising the Corporate Affairs Commission

Many foreign investors who wanted to do business in the country ended up changing their minds when they discovered the trouble it took to incorporate their firms. This, to many potential foreign investors, was a first sign that a lot of bureaucracies awaited them even after incorporation. As such, they often backed out even before […]

Many foreign investors who wanted to do business in the country ended up changing their minds when they discovered the trouble it took to incorporate their firms. This, to many potential foreign investors, was a first sign that a lot of bureaucracies awaited them even after incorporation. As such, they often backed out even before they fully got in.
The CAC has however significantly transformed itself in the past few years. The previous management led by Mr. Ahmed Al-Mustapha did a lot to modernize the operations and automate the agency’s systems. But the agency still wasn’t’ able to deliver services online-real time, which is a key ingredient in speeding up the process of company registration and fillings.  So when Bello Mahmud emerged in 2009 as the Registrar General of CAC, there was still a lot of work to be done in order for the agency to get to the promise land.
Mahmud started out by initiating reforms in processes and systems. This immediately led to a significant reduction in the turn-around time for company registration, filling of returns and all other transactions. On resumption, he also vowed to enhance general processes in the system and make the CAC a model public agency of reference in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and general excellence.
But how did Mr. Mahmud achieve these strides? The CG came in not in the best of times at the CAC. He resumed office to find out that the Chairman of the commission’s board, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim and employees of the CAC were engaged in a face-off that was threatening the corporate performance and the integrity of the agency. Mahmud immediately swung to action, intermediating between both parties. It took series of negotiations, pleas and wise counselling for both parties to agree to sheath their swords, in the interest of peace and progress at CAC. This was no mean achievement.
Today, at the CAC, he has initiated and implemented plans that have integrated the state offices across the country with the head office in Abuja. He also made sure that the efficiency and effectiveness in CAC’s operations do not stop at the head office. All state offices have been compelled to up their game to meet expected standards.
The impact of these reforms has been obvious. The number of registered business entities has gone up from less than 1.2 million in December, 2009 when he was appointed to almost 3 million by December 2011, a space of just two years. From what I hear, the figures are much higher today. Within the 2009 – 2011 period referred to above, the CAC registered almost 900,000 companies, over 1.9 million business names and almost 50,000 incorporated trustees. Most of these successes were recorded following Mahmud’s decision to upgrade the Commission’s registration software, i.e. Content Pinnacle. One of the features of the software is the e-payment portal that enables clients to make online payments for services to be rendered to them by the commission.
It is said that the greatest asset of any company is its people. The best of strategies can fail if there aren’t the right human resources to implement them. In recognition of this fact, the RG decided to improve the welfare and working conditions of the employees.
The story of change at the CAC will not be complete without a mention of the fact that the RG has been able to improve internally generated revenue, moving it from N3 billion when he took over to over N5.5 billion as at end of 2012. This figure has also gone up in the last two years.
Despite all these achievements, the RG has been criticized in some quarters. Critics say that the agency has become a little bit relaxed following the successes achieved by the RG. They claim that in recent times, the commission has not been meeting its self-imposed turnaround time for transactions. Contrary to this view, I know for a fact as a stakeholder in the system that the little delays experienced once in a while are caused by network challenges.
Emmanuel L. Garba writes from Jabi, Abuja