By Uzor Odigbo
The National Assembly and other relevant agencies of Nigerian government has been called upon to urgently gazette the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 and make copies available.
The Director General of Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, made the appeal in Lagos on Sunday.
He recalled that the Company and Allied Matters Act (2020) was assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday August 7, 2020.
While noting that the legislation and the subsequent assent were widely applauded by the business community, Yusuf however, regretted that six weeks after, the legislation was yet to be gazetted.
“The implication of this is that the formal copy of the law is not yet available to the public and therefore the law cannot be operationalized. This is yet another example of how bureaucratic bottlenecks could impede the progress of an economy.
“Ordinarily, and in line with the ongoing digital revolution and the E- Government agenda of government, the law should have been uploaded on the federal government and National Assembly websites hours after the assent by the President.
“Being a major business legislation, the non-availability of the gazetted copy of CAMA 2020 has stalled many activities in the business environment. These are activities anchored on the new legislation. Additionally, the regulations that ought to be issued by the Corporate Affairs Commission on account of the new legislation have equally been stalled because there is no formal document to act upon.
“The situation has created enormous uncertainty in business decisions which require the legislative anchor of CAMA 2020 to progress. As it were, a legislative vacuum has been created. The CAMA 1990 has been repealed, CAMA 2020 is yet to be gazetted, six weeks after assent”, he stated.
While underscoring the need for bureaucracy to work in tandem with the new normal of leveraging technology so that the desired outcomes of reforms could be achieved and expeditiously too , the DG observed that “the implementation of the E-Government programmes should be accelerated to make the public service smarter, efficient and cost effective.
“Given the current wave of digital revolution sweeping across the public and private sectors, the role of the Federal Government Press in the dissemination of official legislations and other publications is at risk of diminishing relevance. It has become imperative for electronic copies of official publications to be promptly disseminated to the public to ensure swift activation and access to the benefits and values which such publications offer for the economy and the society.
“We urge the urge the National Assembly and other relevant agencies of government to expeditiously gazette CAMA 2020 and make copies available to the public.”