A background investigation by TheNigeriaLawyer into two companies engaged by the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) for the 2026 NBA General Elections has revealed that Mikrodigital Connect, the company appointed as the official e-voting provider for the national NBA elections, is listed as “Inactive” on the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) portal, raising serious questions about whether the ECNBA conducted basic due diligence checks before engaging the company to manage the digital infrastructure for an election involving tens of thousands of Nigerian lawyers.
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In contrast, Thanelinc Nigeria Limited, which was appointed by the ECNBA as a certified external data compliance partner, shows an “Active” status on the CAC portal.
The discovery has added to the growing list of transparency concerns surrounding the ECNBA’s management of the 2026 election process, with lawyers questioning how a company with an inactive corporate status could pass through what should have been a rigorous vetting process for one of the most sensitive assignments in the NBA’s electoral calendar.
What the CAC Records Show
TheNigeriaLawyer’s check on the CAC portal returned the following results for the two companies.
Mikrodigital Connect is registered as a business name (not a limited liability company) with RC Number 3022299. Its date of registration is November 22, 2019. Its nature of business is listed as “Information Service Activities.” Its status on the CAC portal is marked as “INACTIVE,” with a notation advising the business to “Visit CAC and update your status.”
Thanelinc Nigeria Limited is registered as a company with RC Number 1481928. Its date of registration is March 23, 2018. Its nature of business is listed as “Business Support/Development Services.” Its status on the CAC portal is marked as “ACTIVE.”
The “Inactive” status on the CAC portal typically means that the business has failed to file annual returns or comply with other statutory requirements of the Corporate Affairs Commission, which is the Nigerian government agency responsible for the registration and regulation of companies and business names. An inactive status does not necessarily mean the business has ceased operations, but it indicates non-compliance with mandatory corporate filing obligations.
However, the fact that a company entrusted with building and managing an end-to-end encrypted, multi-factor authenticated digital voting system for the Nigerian Bar Association has not maintained its basic corporate registration in good standing raises fundamental questions about the ECNBA’s procurement and vetting processes.
Who Is Mikrodigital Connect?
Mikrodigital Connect describes itself as “an indigenous ICT driven company with diverse business interests supported by a specialized team of experts locally and globally in all the ICT sectors.”
The company is led by Chief Executive Officer Shamsuddeen Haruna, who holds a Master’s Degree in Web Design and Development from UNICAF University Zambia, a BSc in Computing and Information Technology from the University of Derby, and various certifications including Huawei Associate Expert certification in 5G, AI, Datacom, Big Data, Security, Routing and Switching.
Haruna’s professional background includes what he describes as a combined 15 years of work experience in both public sector (The Presidency, Kano State Government, Adamawa State Government) and private sector organisations. Projects listed on his profile include the Nigerian Hub (N-Hub) platform, Kano State ICT Centre, Community Agro Business System (CABUS) empowerment programme, a file management system called Fileware, a Human Resources Management System, and a Clinic Management System.
The company operates primarily out of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, with what it describes as an international technical presence in the United States to facilitate its global remote team framework.
Its core services include e-voting platforms, network infrastructure design, custom software and mobile app development, digital strategy, and cybersecurity advisory services. The ECNBA engagement, described as the company’s “biggest corporate milestone to date,” involves managing the 2026 national NBA elections, which requires total transparency, audited trails, and zero-downtime infrastructure for voting by the association’s members.
Despite this portfolio of claimed expertise and the magnitude of the ECNBA contract, the company’s CAC status remains “Inactive,” a fact that a simple search of the publicly accessible CAC portal would have revealed to anyone conducting even the most basic corporate due diligence.
Who Is Thanelinc Nigeria Limited?
Thanelinc Nigeria Limited, which maintains an active CAC status, operates as a professional talent management and corporate consultancy firm specialising in modern learning, AI-powered talent assessments, and corporate strategy.
The company is led by Lead Consultant Ogho Emore, described as a business strategist, enterprise trainer, and subject matter expert in organisational development. He is an alumnus of the Pan-Atlantic University and Lagos Business School networks. Other key personnel include Favour Odiete (Design Strategist) and Felix Ekpa, listed as part of the company’s foundational and administrative structure.
Thanelinc operates the professional assessment portal Assess.ng, which hosts its testing architecture, customised candidate screening groups, and skill evaluation products. Its core services include AI-powered assessments, online proctoring, corporate strategy facilitation, and data protection compliance.
The ECNBA appointed Thanelinc as a certified external data compliance partner for the 2026 elections, tasking it with data protection responsibilities related to the electoral process.
While Thanelinc’s CAC status is active and its corporate registration appears to be in good standing, lawyers have noted that its stated core business of “talent management and corporate consultancy” is not directly aligned with the specialised requirements of election data protection, raising separate questions about the company’s specific qualifications for the role it has been assigned.
The Due Diligence Question
The central question raised by the CAC findings is straightforward: did the ECNBA conduct a background check on Mikrodigital Connect before engaging the company?
A CAC status check is one of the most basic corporate due diligence steps available to any Nigerian organisation, individual, or government body. The CAC portal is publicly accessible, the search is free or costs a nominal fee, and the results are available within minutes. Any entity engaging a company for a sensitive contract, particularly one involving the digital infrastructure for an election, would be expected to verify at minimum that the company’s corporate registration is active and in good standing.
If the ECNBA did conduct a CAC check and found the inactive status but proceeded to engage Mikrodigital Connect regardless, it raises questions about the committee’s standards for vendor selection. If the ECNBA did not conduct even this basic check, it raises more fundamental questions about the rigour of the procurement process that led to the company’s selection.
The concern is compounded by the fact that the ECNBA had shortlisted six IT companies for the management of the election’s digital infrastructure: Lumix Solutions Ltd, Twinslight Technologies Ltd, Top-Tech I.T Resources Nigeria Limited, Mikrodigital Connect, Thanelinc Nigeria Limited, and Cinfores Limited. If one of the six shortlisted companies has an inactive CAC status, lawyers are asking whether similar checks were conducted on the other shortlisted firms and what the results were.
The Broader ECNBA Controversy
The CAC status discovery adds to an expanding list of concerns about the ECNBA’s conduct of the 2026 election process.
NBA-SPIDEL Financial Secretary Tosan Barbara Onwubiko has questioned the committee’s near-N170 million election budget, asking why NEC approved it without scrutiny, why new equipment was being purchased when previous election equipment should still be available, and why N40 million was allocated to a single technical consultant.
Lawyers have also raised questions about the ECNBA’s use of a Zoho Desk portal (support@ecnba.zohodesk.com) for voter list corrections, noting that the platform is not affiliated with any of the six shortlisted IT companies and raising questions about who is already managing the ECNBA’s digital infrastructure before the formal selection process is concluded.
Onwubiko filed a formal petition before the NBA Board of Trustees alleging constitutional breaches in the candidate qualification process, but BOT Chairman Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, declined to intervene, stating the Board does not interfere in politics or electoral contests.
The addition of the CAC inactive status finding to this list of concerns further complicates the ECNBA’s task of building public confidence in its ability to deliver a credible election on July 20, 2026. If the committee cannot demonstrate that it conducted basic corporate due diligence on the companies it engaged, the question of whether the broader election infrastructure meets the transparency and accountability standards expected by the Nigerian Bar becomes even more pressing.
What “Inactive” Means and Why It Matters
An “Inactive” status on the CAC portal does not mean a company has been deregistered or that it has ceased to exist as a legal entity. It typically indicates that the business has failed to file annual returns or comply with other ongoing statutory obligations required by the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020.
However, the failure to maintain an active corporate registration has practical and legal implications. A company or business name that is inactive may face restrictions on certain corporate actions, may be unable to provide valid certificates of compliance to contracting parties, and may be viewed by due diligence standards as presenting elevated risk.
For an entity entrusted with managing the digital voting infrastructure for an election involving the entire membership of the Nigerian Bar Association, including the transmission of authentication tokens, the processing of electronic votes, and the storage and protection of sensitive voter data, an inactive corporate status is not merely a technicality. It goes to the fundamental question of whether the entity meets the minimum standards of corporate governance and regulatory compliance that should be expected of any vendor handling such a sensitive assignment.
No Response from ECNBA
Neither the ECNBA, its Chairman Aham Ejelam, SAN, its Secretary Ibrahim Aliyu Nassarawa, Esq., Mikrodigital Connect, Thanelinc Nigeria Limited, nor any of their representatives has publicly responded to the findings as at the time of this report.
The ECNBA has not disclosed the criteria used to shortlist the six IT companies, the scoring methodology applied during the evaluation, or whether corporate status verification formed part of the vetting process.
The NBA election is scheduled for July 20, 2026. The question of which IT company will ultimately manage the electronic voting platform, and whether that company meets basic corporate governance standards, remains one of the unresolved issues hanging over the election process.
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