President Buhari Signs Amended Companies And Allied Matters Bill Into Law For Business Owners

President Muhammadu Buhari has signed into law the Companies and Allied Matters Bill, 2020, recently amended and passed by the National Assembly.

This was made known by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement issued on Friday, August 7, 2020.

Adesina said the law will see to the reduction of filing fee and other reforms to make it easier and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises to register and reform their businesses in Nigeria. The statement reads:

“The President’s action on this important piece of legislation, therefore, repealed and replaced the extant Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990, introducing after 30 years, several corporate legal innovations geared toward enhancing ease of doing business in the country.

“Such innovations include:

– Filing fee reductions and other reforms to make it easier and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises to register and reform their businesses in Nigeria;

– Allowing corporate promoters of companies to establish private companies with a single member or shareholder, and creating limited liability partnerships and limited partnerships to give investors and business people alternative forms of carrying out their business in an efficient and flexible way;

– Innovating processes and procedures to ease the operations of companies, such as introducing Statements of Compliance; replacing “authorised share capital” with minimum share capital to reduce costs of incorporating companies; and providing for electronic filing, electronic share transfers, e-meetings as well as remote general meetings for private companies in response to the disruptions to close contact physical meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic;

– Requiring the disclosure of persons with significant control of companies in a register of beneficial owners to enhance corporate accountability and transparency; and

– Enhancing the minority shareholder protection and engagement; introducing enhanced business rescue reforms for insolvent companies; and permitting the merger of Incorporated Trustees for associations that share similar aims and objectives.”

KanyiDaily recalls that a few weeks ago President Buhari had lamented that Nigeria is in a ‘very terrible state of development’ with large population of poor people.

He decried the vulnerable nature of the nation’s economy as well as infrastructure deficit and urged the Economic Council to do more to help the country exit “our very terrible state of development.”