By Tina Amanda
As a way of minimizing corruption and money laundering in the public and private sectors, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) says it has currently shortlisted one hundred thousand companies for delistment over noncompliance and efficiency to the rules and regulations of the commission.
The Registrar General of the Cooperate Affairs Commission, Garba Abubakar, disclosed this during a one-day Training Workshop organized by CAC in collaboration with CISLAC on the Use of Beneficial Ownership Register (BOR), held in Port Harcourt, said the delisting of the one hundred thousand companies is coming after ten thousand and fifty thousand companies respectively have been previously delisted for being inactive.
Abubakar explained that the Commission has concluded plans to use the Beneficial Ownership Register (BOR) as part of its overall National Anti-Corruption strategy to fight against corruption, money laundering, terrorism, terrorism financing, proliferation, and proliferation financing.
The Registrar General of the Cooperate Affairs Commission who was represented by the Director Compliance CAC, Justin Nidiya maintained that the Beneficial Ownership Register not only helps in the registration of companies but also helps to enhance transparency and accountability framework.
According to him, the BOR, being a platform where ownership information of natural owners of businesses are disclosed, the organized private sector is expected to use the Register for customer due diligence and to check conflict of interest, adding that the media can use the BOR for investigative journalism and the NGOs to promote accountability and transparency in governance, particularly in procurement.
“in Nigeria, the idea to checkmate corruption perpetuated by individuals who set up businesses as fronts to launder money was borne in May of 2015 by the former president, Muhammadu Buhari at the London Anti-Corruption Conference or Summit where commitment was made that the country would implement the requirements.
“The commitment was followed up by concrete actions which eventually resulted in the repeal and re-enactment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 and also was followed by the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act, Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act and Proceeds of Crime Act all of 2022.
“Sections 119, 791, and 868 of CAMA introduced the concept of Beneficial Ownership, and Section 119 in particular placed three legal obligations on individuals for effective implementation of the Beneficial Ownership framework.
“The National Beneficial Ownership Register is one of the best globally not only because of the involvement of the World Bank in its development but it is the only Register that provides for instantaneous online verification of the identity of the Beneficial Owner through integration with the National Identity Management Commission’s database.”
“Section 791 of CAMA places similar obligations on the Limited Liability Partnerships. Section 868 defines Beneficial ownership or Persons with significant Control for the purposes of the Act”.
Abubakar said further that the Commission with the assistance of the World Bank and other stakeholders such as Oasis, developed the National Register of Beneficial Ownership, deployed on 26 May 2021, had undertaken a series of training on the use of the Register.
“Before the introduction of the BOR portal, the Commission had collected Beneficial Ownership information for all companies registered from 1 January 2021, through the CRP (Companies Registration Portal in addition to collections from Annual Returns and Post incorporation filings for legacy companies.
“The Commission had issued Beneficial Ownership or Persons with Significant Control Regulations in 2022 to provide clarity in the implementation of the framework”.
Project Officer of Oasis Management Company Limited, Priscilla Orukpe, builders of the BOR portal, said access to the Beneficial Ownership Register is free, adding that it provides robots information and awareness about the registration of a company.
She emphasized that the Database is also sensitive to the requirements of Data Privacy and Protection requirements.
Representative of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC), Muna Ugochukwu, said Nigeria loses a lot in illicit financial flows, and tax avoidance owing to the complexity of ownership structures of corporate businesses in the country, noting that the BOR will help to block revenue leakages.
“Thankfully the Bureau of Public Procurement was present because there is a complementarity that should exist between the ownership and contract transparency to ensure all government transactional processes and the companies that would be benefiting from them have disclosure of the needed information both on the contract themselves and the individuals that have the contracts.
“The idea is to use beneficial ownership BOR to make sure people are remitting the taxes they are due to pay”.
A Representative Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Kabiru Maigari, said most government officials have company but do not register their companies and uses it to commit crime.
He noted that BOR will help to reduce money laundering and fraud, stressing it will go a long way to bring in foreign investors into the country.
