By Tanko Mohammed
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called for the urgent gazetting of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 to address uncertainties with business decisions which require its legislative anchor to progress.
Dr Muda Yusuf, Director-General LCCI, in a statement, said the lack of a gazetted copy had created a legislative vacuum, six weeks after Presidential assent.
Yusuf said it implied that the formal copy of the law was not yet available to the public and therefore could not be operationalised.
The DG said 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 president’s assent.
He called for accelerated implementation of e-Government programmes to make the public service smarter, efficient and cost effective.
“The Company and Allied Matters Act [2020] was assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR on Aug. 7, 2020.
“The legislation and the subsequent assent were widely applauded by the business community.
“However, six weeks after, the legislation is yet to be gazetted.
“This is yet another example of how bureaucratic bottlenecks could impede the progress of an economy.
“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,” he said.
Yusuf said that additionally, the regulations that ought to be issued by the Corporate Affairs Commission on account of the new legislation had been stalled because there was no formal document to act upon.
“It is important that the bureaucracy works in tandem with the new normal of leveraging technology so that the desired outcomes of reforms can be achieved, and expeditiously too.
“We urge the National Assembly and other relevant agencies of government to expeditiously gazette CAMA 2020 and make copies available to the public,” he said.
