CAC Spends N1bn To Settle Nine Per Cent Salary Increment Arrears *……Delist 40,000 Dormant Companies

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), on Wednesday, revealed that it has spend over N1 billion to settle the nine per cent salary increment arrears agreed upon by the Federal ministry Industry, Trade and Investment, CAC and the staff Union since 2013.

In the past, specifically in 2016, the staff of the Commission had taken to the street several times demanding the payment of the nine per cent increment.

Speaking in Abuja at a press briefing, the acting registrar of CAC, Lady Azuka Azinge who took over the management of the Commission in 2017 stated that the “nine per cent salary increment arrears that arose from a tripartite agreement between the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, CAC and the Union, which was a major cause of perennial and industrial unrest before I assumed office has been settled.”

She said pensioners were been owed arrears of over N200 million, “all the outstanding pension arrears have been cleared. We do not own any pensioner at the moment,” she stated.

Celebrating two years as head of the agency, Azinge said under her watch, the commission has achieved the “complete decentralization of all state offices operations, to ensure that state offices operate at par with head office, and to enable customers pick up their certificates at any location of their choice.”

She said within this time, “full closure of manual registration nationwide and deployment of online real-time pre-registration services to all State Offices through the Company Registration Portal (CRP), to enable members of the public register their businesses from the comfort of their homes and offices within 24 hours.

“Improve the delivery time for name search from 12 hours to 0-4 hours, removal of requirement for proficiency certificate in the registration of professional entities to encourage investors, faithful implementation of Presidential Executive Orders on Ease of Doing Business and other relevant reforms and the introduction of Functional external and internal communication (Functional website, periodic circulars)” among others.

Speaking further, Lady Azuka explained that she had ensured a “Successful implementation of the Business Incentive Strategy (BIS) under which the cost of registration of business was reduced by 50 per cent to enable MSMEs formalize their businesses. A total of 232,004 Business Names were registered during the period,” she stated.

She said that to ensure active participation of companies in Nigerian business environment, the “Commission periodically sanction firms that are dormant over a long period of time” noting that earlier in the year, over 40, 000 were delisted by CAC.”

On the allegations that she is currently earning the salary of a substantive Registrar-General, she said the claim was untrue.

She said based on the approval of the board at its 74th meeting, an acting allowance was approved for her based on the commission’s condition of service.

She said the post of acting Registrar General qualifies her as an officer of the Commission to earn acting allowance if she acts at a higher position for 30 or more days.

According to her, it is based on the belief that the acting RG is an officer of the Commission that the Board on the 8th and 9th February, 2019 considered and approved payment of acting allowance to her.

“The Board’s decision was informed by the fact that Rule 6. 06 mentioned did not provide details as to what constitutes acting allowance.

“As a matter of fact, the Board at its 74th meeting approved the acting allowances only, which excludes salary. Consequently, the acting RG still earns the salary of a Director.

“From the foregoing, it is therefore not true to say that the Board upgraded my status as my letter of appointment was explicit and crystal clear on the status of my appointment as acting Registrar-General.”

Lady Azuka Azinge took over the helms of affairs of the Commission as Acting Registrar-General on 9th October 2017 upon the expiration of the tenure of the erstwhile Registrar-General Mr Bello Mahmud and has remained in the acting capacity for two years now.