As part of effort to improve the lives of Nigeria’s citizens, The Federal Government of Nigeria and Department of International Development (DFID) with World Bank has come up with a program called Growth and Employment in State (GEMS), an initiative to reduce poverty in the country.
This was made known at a public forum in Ibadan yesterday to sentisize business owners of Oyo State in collaboration with Corporate and Affair Commission (CAC) on the benefit of the initiative to enhance their businesses to thrive.
In his address, an investment specialist, Mr. Ben Ogbunude said before now the cost of registering businesses in Nigeria is high owning to numbers of procedures required to register a business.
He said this has raised federal government concern to make the procedures less cumbersome through tax harmonisation to reduce tax burden on businesses, promoting the benefits of formalisation to increase business registration.
He added that part of benefit of registering business with Corporate Affair Commission is an easy access to loans and solving problem related to issue of collateral.
Coroborating him, the CAC state offices coordinator, Mr. Yazid Aliyu said until January 2012, only lawyers, Chartered Accountants and Chartered Secretaries were eligible to present applications to CAC for registration of companies saying the policy has attracted criticism as a contributing factor to huge cost of starting a business in Nigeria which has resulted to negative rating in global competitiveness.
He said it is as part of measure to improve Nigeria’s rating that the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment initiated the investment climate reform programme with technical and financial support from GEMS3.
He maintained that the policy is principally targeted to benefit Small and Medium entrepreneurs who may not afford the services of accredited agents and to encourage informal businesses to register and to deepen access to finance for those classes of business.
He added that the Federal Government has reduced the filing fees payable for registration of new companies saying that the commission has deployed a new registration software in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology which now make it possible for accredited customers and business owners to carry out their transaction on line.
Also speaking at the forum, Mrs. Folakemi Akinleye, the Special Adviser to the Governor of Oyo state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi said the governor can not do it alone, a reason he partners with private sector to make economy thrive.
She said the essence of the forum is to enlighten business owners on how to manage their business better through information made available to them.
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