What Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Must Do To Avoid Poor Service Delivery On Its Website

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is established by S (1) of the Company and Allied Matters Act, 1990. As provided in S. 7 (1), the Commission shall subject to section 541 of the Act, administer the Act including the regulation and supervision of the formation, incorporation, registration, management, and winding-up of companies under or pursuant to the Act.

From the foregoing, it is clear that the CAC is responsible for the registration of companies (body or business entities) as can be found in Part A, B, and C of the Act. The processes for the registration of companies are expressly stated in the Act. However, e-registration of company can be done on the commission’s website at www.cac.gov.ng. This piece aims at addressing the hitches that have been so far observed with the online registration procedure on the commission’s website.

Sometimes in April, 2017, the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Mr Mahmud Bello, informed the general public that the Commission has started operating 24 hours company registration process to make startup of business easier in Nigeria. This was made known at the CAC Customers’ Forum in Kano, which was organized in collaboration with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). The announcement was made following the introduction of an online portal on the CAC website with the aim of easing online registration of companies.

The introduction was to bring to an end the gradual reign of manual registration procedure. Since the upgrade, online friendly customers have been visiting the CAC website to transact business, but the experiences thus far have not been quite encouraging. Just last week, it was reported that the CAC Registration portal crashed seven times within three months. Visitors to the CAC cyberspace found it difficult transacting with the Commission as the e-means of communicating such transactions was on a total shutdown. Also, there have been complaints about the online customer care relationship of the Commission. Reports have it that the numbers that are made available on the website are not reachable. This needs to be addressed.

Without gainsaying, the Commission must understand that in so far as the registration of companies in Nigerian is concerned, it is second to none. It is the beginning and the end, which means that the services of the Commission cannot be dispensed with. Therefore, the Commission is suppose to be up and doing, giving services with the highest level of professionalism. The whole world is going global. Commercial activities are not left out. Gone are those days when manual means of payment are heavily relied on.

Today, there are various means of online payment all over the world. Due to the demand on the CAC concerning company registration, the online procedure is surely the best way of meeting up the demands of the public, especially, with the ever emerging ICT equipped and enlightened populace. CAC is therefore expected to flow with the tide.

The seven-time crashing of the CAC portal in a space of three months is not unassociated with the weight or capacity of the CAC website. Where the number of visitors to the website is more than the capacity of the website at a time, the website will definitely crash. This means that the CAC needs to upgrade to a better and stronger website with a better and stronger capacity.

The CAC must as a matter of urgency employ the services of a capable hosting company that will host their website. An experienced firm is needed to improve the strength of the website so that it can accommodate many visitors at a time. Also, the Commission needs to provide functioning phone numbers so that visitors can be able to access the customer care representatives anytime they need to be accessed. Functioning phone numbers is not just enough, but these numbers must be available on working hours. Customers must be able to reach these numbers when they need to.

Furthermore, it is also suggested that the numbers be made toll free so that customers can be able to freely lay their complaints and make possible enquiries. Moreso, the Commission should provide a chat label on the website where customers can communicate with customer care representatives who will be available to respond to urgent enquiries.

The world is changing, and if we must meet up with the trend, then we must as a matter of fact adjust to the current reality facing us. It doesn’t speak well on an organization like the CAC to be recording cases of crash on its website, seven times within a space of three months. The CAC must do the needful to address these issues and prove to the world that it is a Commission conversant with the global best practices in service delivery.

TheNigerialawyer Editorial