By Dayo Omoogun
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called on the Federal Government to urgently gazette the Companies
and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020) as a way of clearing the uncertainties in the business environment which the delay has generated.
This call was made in spite of the controversies and concerns in the public domain, particularly in religious quarters, about some of its provisions which purportedly have draconian characteristics
In a statement made available to the press on Monday, the Director-General of the chamber, Dr. Muda Yusuf, noted that the delay in gazetting the law is a reference point of how bureaucratic bottlenecks are allowed to frustrate economic progress.
“The legislation and the subsequent assent were widely applauded by the business community”, lamenting that six weeks after the legislation’s presidential assent it is yet to be gazette”, Yusuf said.
He went on: “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.”
He lamented the uncertainties in the businesss environment as well as the disconnect between government bureaucracy and technology.
“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 The CAMA 1990 has been repealed, CAMA 2020 is yet to be gazetted, six weeks after assent.
“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.
“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.”