Lawyers who act as agents in the process have also been at the receiving end, posturing them as unprofessional to their clients. Indeed, the situation deteriorated so badly last year they organized a protest to demand for the removal of the Registrar General, Garba Abubakar who they say is incompetent and unfit for the job and have described his appointment as coincidental to the decline in service delivery currently pervading the commission.
Not since the couple of engagements I’ve had with the police have I experienced a frustratingly empty and an altogether exasperating service delivery from an agency of government. For an organization that is core and crucial to the advancement of entrepreneurship in the country, the Corporate Affairs Commission is clearly a clog in the wheels of progress. Their process is archaic, backwards and detrimental to the ease of doing business policy of the government. Not to even mention that it is probably staffed by dinosaurs. A process that should take a week or two, takes up to six months and many more end up inconclusive, with patrons having to forfeit monies paid.
I had paid for a search of name availability which was approved for registration in no time. Little did I know that that speedy approval was to fast track my descent into hell. On the 24th of June, I proceeded to pay a sum of N10,161 (Their merchant, Remita charges N161) for the registration of a business name and was sent a receipt by mail. Up till this moment, the business hasn’t been registered, neither has my money been returned. To get through to them via phone calls is more difficult than a government official resigning, and if you do, what you’ll find out is they’re well trained in saying “we’ll escalate it”. Mails are never replied. To add to the annoying circus, they introduced a supporting ticket process on the 8th of July 2021 which I made use of and was issued a reference number. It suffered the same fate as the mails. Their offices aren’t open to members of the public and one of their staff shockingly advised I went to a business center to resolve it.
I proceeded to pay for another name availability which was again, speedily approved unsurprisingly. Unsurprisingly again, the circus began after I made the payment of N10,161 for another registration. It has been back and forth since then. From querying the documents uploaded to blank spaces in my application to what gender I was and it began to look like an intentional effort by the commission to frustrate people. The customer service is abysmal and provides no hope for resolution whatsoever. Up until publishing this, nothing has been done.
The consolation – if it is, is that I am not alone in this. For over a year, many have lamented bitterly about the same tragedy. Lawyers who act as agents in the process have also been at the receiving end, posturing them as unprofessional to their clients. Indeed, the situation deteriorated so badly last year they organized a protest to demand for the removal of the Registrar General, Garba Abubakar who they say is incompetent and unfit for the job and have described his appointment as coincidental to the decline in service delivery currently pervading the commission.
While the effort to complete its processes online is a commendable idea, in reality, it is still a mirage. Often times, the CAC server is dysfunctional as it is clear it cannot accommodate the demand on it. A lot of the information on the commission’s portal is either obsolete or false. The endless customer complaints that are left unattended to does not beam the organization in good light. It is apparent that the commission is finding it increasingly difficult to cope with its activities. Even the introduction of more care lines has only served to worsen the care provided. As the institution statutorily invested with being the custodian of corporate activities in Nigeria, it cannot continue to act as a threat to entrepreneurship and ultimately economic prosperity.
Tope Oke
