By Lucy Ogalue
The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN) are strengthening their partnership to improve service delivery and ensure economic development.
The Registrar-General of CAC, Hussaini Magaji, said this when a team from BRIPAN led by its President, Mr Chimezie Ihekweazu, visited him on Wednesday in Abuja.
Magaji expressed CAC’s commitment to continuing to work with the association and urged the development of a full digital database for all practitioners to facilitate business.
“Our relationship with you is rooted in our Establishment Act, particularly Section 705 of Section 1C of the Act.
“Where BRIPAN is recognised as one of the professional bodies whose members are entitled to be given license or authorisation by CAC to practice as insolvency practitioners.
“As a matter of policy, I made it so that we only approve the case for a license to practice as insolvency practitioners when the applicant attaches evidence of membership with BRIPAN.
“We encourage non-members of BRIPAN to show evidence of previous practice.
”This is to ensure professional and effective service delivery,’’ he said.
According to Magaji, accreditation with CAC gives BRIPAN members, lawyers, and accountants an opportunity to compile online processes for creation, receivership, company voluntary arrangements, netting, and distribution.
The registrar-general, therefore, pledged to push for the association’s legislative backing so it could be better positioned to carry out its mandate.
Earlier, the association’s president thanked Magaji for his efforts towards bolstering professional standards and ensuring ease of doing business in the country.
Ihekweazu commended the CAC boss for his numerous innovations, which had ensured ease of doing business, but he urged for more collaboration with the association to boost the economy.
He said: “ Insolvency is one of the richest areas of practice in Nigeria, but the percentage that has become available to practitioners, or, I would say, tapped, is very low.
“And with these changes, we believe it will continue to graduate from strength to strength. In BRIPAN, we hold strongly to our relationship with CAC.
“And the most significant is that we have introduced BRIPAN in all six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, and this effort has been sustained by the recognition of BRIPAN in CARMA 2020.
“And there is a need to open up the insurgency practice to every part of this country and extend it to smaller businesses.
“We are not unmindful of some of the changes that have come with your regime.”
Ihekweazu congratulated Magaji on the efforts he has made within the short period.
He said, “ I must also point out that you have made the business space in Nigeria safe and secure by ensuring that all POS operators are registered.”
Ihekweazu, while expressing BRIPAN’s willingness to continue partnering with CAC, extended an invitation to CAC to its international conference, to be held from Sept. 26th to Sept. 27th.
Also, Mr Amala Umeike, Co-Chair of the Special Projects Committee of BRIPAN, called for closer collaboration with the CAC to ensure shared benefits for both organisations.
“I think the President wanted me to highlight the immediate low-hanging fruit that we are trying to achieve at the Special Projects Committee, which is the insolvency regulation.
“Currently, of course, there is no provision for that insolvency threshold in the insolvency regulation, which creates a problem for us activists, ” he said.
Umeike decried that a lack of clear regulations allowed debtors to exploit the system, raising preliminary objections that stalled the insolvency process.
He, therefore, proposed the formation of a committee to review and update the insolvency regulation as a quick win for both organisations.
A past president of BRIPAN, Oluseyi Akinwunmi, commended the dynamism of CAC’s current administration, saying, we know the importance of the work you do here, and we cannot take it for granted.
“We are sure that together we will do great things for the Nigerian commercial world.’’
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the BRIPAN delegation also included Mr Lotanna Okoli, Adeleke Agbola, Emeka Etiaba, Dickson Balami, Ms Queendaline Ede, and Ifunanya Onwuasoanya, among others.