By Mahmud Jika
The Corporate Affairs Commission has taken necessary steps to deploy a new online registration system by the end of the month adding that the new system portends better services for customers.
A statement signed by the Commission’s Director, Public Affairs, Churchill Williams, said that the configuration of the new online system was borne out of the fact that the existing system had functional limitations in features and user ability. It also said that
the commission has started a new bottom-up application development which will be launched in stages starting with name search and online payment by the end of the month.
While apologizing to customers for the disruption in its services, the commission said it had put in place measures to clear the backlog arising from two weeks system shut down with this week even as approvals are awaiting collection.
The statement said further that the disruption was caused by the vendor handling the commission’s software who had collected part of his money and yet shut down the system. It said it was unfortunate that anyone could do this to a government business for two weeks, adding the disruption was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the ongoing efforts to deploy a new online registration system by October 1, 2014.
The commission said it will continue its stakeholder sensitization programme which will be followed by pre and post incorporation services.
The commission, the statement added expects that at the end of all these processes, its services will reach optimum level within the next six months when all applications on services will be automated and available online.
The commissioned reiterated its commitment to overcome these challenges and further solicit for the understanding and cooperation of its valued customers and the general public.
Recall, business activities at the headquarters of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Abuja were brought to a standstill early morning Monday as lawyers and other customers protested over alleged poor service by the organization.
The lawyers, along with members of the Institute of Chartered Accounts of Nigeria (ICAN) and Chartered Institute of Secretaries of Nigeria (CISN), during the protest called on President Goodluck Jonathan to order the immediate sack of the management of the corporations for alleged incompetence.
One of the protesting lawyers, Osakwe, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, accusing the Registrar General of CAC, Bello Mahmud, of not doing enough to resolve the crisis that resulted in loss of valuable data from prospective applicants for business registration in the past two months.
For more than two months, normal services in CAC have been deteriorating, Mr. Osakwe said, Contrary to information in the CAC
website that applications for reservation of business name and business incorporation would be completed within three hours and three days respectively, its takes a minimum of two months.
CAC claim is not in tandem with the reality on the ground. The truth is that nothing is working in CAC. There is total collapse of their Internet connectivity service. Valuable data are lost, creating confusion in the system between lawyers and their clients. The claim that CAC was upgrading its system to a bigger one is false.”
According to him, applications for name search availability sent in to the CAC system more than two months ago are still pending approval.
