The consistent crashing of the company registration portal of the
Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, is slowing down the implementation of
the Federal Government’s Ease of Doing Business policy, DAILY NIGERIAN
reports.
Recall that in 2017, the then acting President, Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo, had signed an Executive Order on Ease of Doing
Business to foster transparency and improve the business environment in
the country.
The document directs all government MDAs to ensure
easier access to information, processes and documentation, as well as
promote efficiency in public service delivery.
“The
Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) shall within
14 days of the issuance of this Order ensure that all registration
processes at the CAC are fully automated through the CAC website from
the start of an application process to completion, including ensuring
the availability of an online payment platform where necessary,” the
Order read in part.
On this instruction, the CAC in 2018 had
automated all its operations to pave way for the Small and Medium
Enterprises, SMEs, owners to register their businesses with ease and
have access to government incentives.
In the light of this, the Commission engaged MainOne, a Lagos-based private firm, to manage its company registration portal.
However,
a few years after the migration, stakeholders have continued to lament
over what they described as epileptic nature of the services, saying
that the portal falls short of their expectations as it crashes more
often than not.
CAC staff, accredited agents cry for help
DAILY
NIGERIAN reports that the instability of the portal has been causing
untold hardship on the accredited agents of the commission who have
virtually been shut out of business.
The agents who comprise
lawyers, chartered accountants and secretaries are not on the payroll of
the commission but depend on the commissions received after handling
company registrations for their clients.
Speaking with DAILY
NIGERIAN, one of the agents who did not want her name printed on the
newspaper for fear of losing her accreditation, disclosed that the
server had crashed seven times within the year 2020.
According
to her, the breaking down of the site has made them lose many clients,
just as other clients had lost confidence in them for not being able to
register companies for them.
She said: “At the moment, no company
registration is going on at the CAC. This is the only source of our
livelihoods and, as such, we have been subjected to begging and other
illicit ways of surviving.”
A staffer at the CAC’s head office,
who pleaded anonymity, told DAILY NIGERIAN that even the revenue
generation of the commission has been dwindling due to the instability
of the portal.
According to him, it took the grace of God for the
commission to pay salaries and settle other staff obligations during
the period.
“The portal has been on and off for the past few
months. In fact, throughout the COVID-19 lockdown period, the server had
been off. It would only come on and after a few days go off again.
MainOne is not competent. They should be changed or cautioned to be
up-and-doing.
“Most importantly, I believe there is saboteurs somewhere and the management is not doing enough to arrest the situation.
“You
know the Registrar-General just assumed office a few months ago and you
remember the drama that led to his emergence as the head of the CAC.
Maybe there are saboteurs from within,” the source alleged.
CAC’s reaction
However,
in a notice to its customers on Wednesday, the CAC apologized for the
disruption of its online services which according to them started from
around 8:00AM on June, 9.
In the notice, signed by management,
the commission said the disruption is, “attributable to infrastructure
failure at our hosting facility in MainOne Data Centre in Lagos”.
“MainOne Cable Company Limited is responsible for the hosting and management of the commission’s IT infrastructure.
“Efforts are being made by the management to restore normal services as soon as possible.”
While
the MainOne is yet to return the calls and messages sent to them
demanding for comments are yet to reach us, checks by this newspaper
revealed that the portal has come alive in the early hours of Friday.
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