The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has advised Nigerians to desist from opening or registering businesses that they had no immediate intention of starting.
The Director of Compliance, CAC, Mr Justine Nidia, made the call on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria.
Nidia said such companies are “shelf companies” and they are not encouraged by the commission, thus they are delisted from the CAC’s list of companies.
He noted that the Commission is about to delist 95,000 companies.
He said, “It is not advisable to register a company and keep it in your briefcase because that is not helpful to the economy.
“The idea of delisting companies is that we should not be seen encouraging shelf companies.
“By shelf companies, we mean registered companies that are redundant or dormant; they are not doing anything.
“So they do not have to be on the register of companies. The appropriate thing to do is to remove them or strike them off the register,” Nidia said.
He said the commission had published an initial list of about 100,000 companies to be delisted.
“We gave an initial period of 90 days, which has elapsed, to those who think they will still be in business to file annual returns for them not to be delisted.
“After the initial publication, about 5,000 companies responded to file their annual returns, with the remaining approximately 95,000 to be delisted.
“What we have done recently is to issue another publication, requesting companies that have filed their returns and their names are still on the list to get back to us with evidence.
“So we do not delist a company that already filed its return. So we have given an additional period of one month, after which we will gazette the final list,” Nidia said.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
