No doubt, the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC under the leadership of Alhaji Garba Abubakar, Registrar General, Chief Executive officer had introduced various reforms geared towards moving the commission from analogue to digital inline with the global trend and technological advancement.
Among many of these reforms , the Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), and one stop shop online registration and transaction along with other mandate business of the commission had attracted not only commendation, but showcased Nigeria among the comity of nations locally and internationally.
This had also attracted tangible reward system both from corporate organisations, private conglomerates and public institutions of government and was crowned recently, with the emergence of CAC as one of the five leading government organizations, with sane practices that had encouraged not only economic activities amid global recession , but quantum investment and investors.
It is in the public domain that the 2022 reports of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council ( PEBEC, an arm of the Presidency saddled with monitoring of government departments had declared CAC as one of the five most business efficient, and transparent in it’s services for the year 2022.
The new feat was a departure from the old order and a model that had encouraged influx of multiple investment locally and internationally, with high confidence on the business enabling environment put in place by the commission.
The high feat was realizable inspite of the world ravaged pandemic of COVID-19 and it’s consequences on the toll of businesses, and the efficacy of the pet program of the current leadership of the commission, the enactment of Company and Allied Matters Act CAMA 2020, that had paved way for full deregulation and digitization of it’s activities.
Owing to CAMA and it’s operationalization which led to the introduction of the electronic filing system among many other digital/online programs and innovations, the commission accounting software also drew inspiration from the “Extensible Business Reporting Language,” (XBLR) standard in line with global best practices , additionally the system would be made available to other regulatory bodies in the country to ensure synergy.
These laudable programs, aside exposing transparency and accountability, it will also drive the anti- corruption stance of the federal government to fruition in the specialised areas of the commission and by extension in collaboration, partnerships and synergies with other sister agencies, to detonate the negative tendencies about the country.
This will ease other activities of the commission that was hitherto been avoided by company owners, particularly the registration and annual filing of returns electronically, that was capable of exposing any form of unethical practices.
Aside fighting corruption among many other illicit activities, the new platform also encouraged Beneficial Ownership Disclosure (BOD), which the commission will leverage on its activities, fight against banditry and any other illicit deals.
Since the filing of financial statements electronically by companies and entities is a corollary and basic requirements towards assessing their performances, the introduction of various reforms and electronic platforms particularly the Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), cannot be overemphasized.
With the endorsement of the technical know- how particularly the developers of the modern softwares been used in filing annual returns electronically, an offshoot of the Company Registration Portal (CRP) certified for regulated entities such as the NGOs, CSO’s, integrated trustees, private limited liability companies, and other business entities.
As a stepping stone in the electronic platforms, the success of XBRL, Beneficial Ownership Disclosure (BOD) will translate to Beneficial Ownership Register (BOR) for public consumption and assessment of information in line with the new technology and technological order obtainable in the global communities.
Yusuf writes from Abuja and can be reached on [email protected].
