CAC Disowns Notice on Validation of Registered Companies
By Joseph Ayinde
The Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, has disowned the Notice that the Commission is requesting validation of accounts of registered companies.
Below is the full text of the disclaimer issued by the Commission:
RE: VALIDATION OF COMPANIES, BUSINESS NAMES AND INCORPORATED TRUSTEES ACCOUNTS
The attention of the Commission has been drawn to a write-up making the rounds on social media and stating that the Commission has requested all Companies, Business Names and Incorporated Trustees to “validate” their accounts on or before March 31, 2021 failing which the entities would be deleted and assumed not to be in existence”. The write-up stated further that the “validation” is to be done “using a paid service” on search.cac.gov.ng with any feedback to be sent to spucac.gov.ng.
The Commission wishes to state categorically that it did not issue or direct the issue of any request for Companies, Business Names and Incorporated Trustees to “validate” their accounts with the Commission. Furthermore, the Commission does not “delete” registered entities. Companies and Incorporated Trustees may only be dissolved (with or without liquidation) and Business Names removed from the Register in accordance with the procedures prescribed in the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA). And none of these procedures include “deletion”.
The indicated status of a registered entity on the Public Search portal as “ACTIVE” or “INACTIVE” is a function of the entity’s annual returns filing. Where a registered entity has not filed its annual returns up to date, the status of the entity is indicated as ‘INACTIVE”. When a registered entity has filed its annual returns up to date, the status of the entity is indicated as “ACTIVE”. It was partly in this regard that the Commission on January 11, 2021 issued and published a Public Notice on its website and social media platform advising registered entities to confirm the current information on their entities on https://search.cac.gov.ng using the paid service interface and forward any feedback on the status to spucac.gov.ng for the Commission’s necessary action. There was no mention of validation of accounts or deletion of registration in the Public Notice.
Finally, while assuring the general public of its commitment to providing registration and regulatory services adequate to the expectations of its esteemed customers, the Commission wishes to state that any notice, information or update issuing to the general public is always published on the Commission’s website at www.cac.gov.ng, Twitter handle (@cacnigeria1) and Facebook page (cacnigerian).
Signed: MANAGEMENT 24/02/2021
