CIN drums up support for CAC’S beneficial ownership disclosure principle

The Compliance Institute of Nigeria (CIN) says making the Beneficial Ownership Disclosure a requirement for company registration by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is crucial to the success of the fight against corruption, banditry, and illicit trade.

The President of the Institute, Boleigha Pattison Binadeigha, stated this in Kano during the one-day CAC Customers and Stakeholders Training on the Beneficial Ownership Disclosure Principles and Electronic Filing System for the Filing of Financial Statements by Registered Entities.

Pattison Binadeigha stressed that Nigeria’s fight against many vices would be won by leveraging the opportunities being provided by the CAC reform initiatives.

He therefore applauded the giant stride and called on the customers, stakeholders, and public to continue to support the Commission as it continues to modernize its operations in line with global best practices.

Speaking on the Beneficial Ownership Disclosure Principle, the Registrar-General and CEO of the CAC, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, said the initiative was to support the present administration’s fight against corruption.

As a result, Alhaji Garba Abubakar recalled President Muhammadu Buhari's commitment to the Open Government Partnership Initiatives at the London Anti-Corruption Summit in 2016.

On the Electronic Filing System, Garba Abubakar revealed that the accounting software drew inspiration from the extensible business reporting language (xBLR) standard in line with global best practices and added that the system would be made available to other regulatory bodies in the country to ensure synergy.

In his remark, Damilola Awe, of GMD Centrifuge Information Technology Ltd. (a software developer), described it as an online account filling system by CAC supported by EU-ACT for regulated entities such as CSOs, NGOs, integrated trustees, private limited liability companies, and other business entities.

Damilola Awe said the EFS is an offshoot (a module or feature addition) of the parent software Company Registration Portal (CRP) that allows annual financial statement filings electronically.

Earlier in a presentation by Priscilla Orukpe and Helen Odoma, Oasis Management Company spoke on the imperatives of the Beneficial Ownership Disclosure Principles.

In a remark, Femi Olorunyomi, Deputy Director Academics, Nigerian Law School Kano, applauded the reform initiatives of the Commission and urged it to visit the law school campuses across the country to highlight some of the reforms.

Femi Olorunyomi said the call was necessary in view of the various innovations introduced by the CAMA, 2020, and the ever increasing complex nature of company law in Nigeria and the world.

During the event, goodwill messages and presentations were received from NBA Kano, ICAN Kano District, ICAN Duste District, and NASME, amongst others.

CAC News reports that most of the stakeholders and customers who spoke at the event applauded the CAC and therefore urged it to host more of such engagement and sensitization.