Group Calls For Extension Of Deadlines On Draft Company Regulations 2020
A coalition of organized civil society members has in a letter to the Corporate Affairs Commission called for the extension of deadlines for stakeholders to send comments on the draft Company Regulations 2020.
The letter which is signed by 38 civil society actors including Global Rights argues that the Companies and Allied Matters Act has 870 sections while the Regulations is a 268 paged document
As drafted, the draft Company Regulations will guide the implementation of relevant portions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020. The CAMA 2020 which was assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) on the 7th of August, 2020 was fan fared to Nigerians under the ease of doing business in the country but it remains a piece of highly contentious legislation which has drawn widespread rebuttal from both Civil and non-civil society actors for containing several ambiguous provisions which could be a subject of repression and impunity.
Given the importance of the Regulations to the applicability of the Act, it is pertinent that stakeholders be given adequate time to properly review it and the one-week timeline for submission of comments is quite insufficient to get an aggregate of comments from stakeholders in the metropolis and especially the hinterlands, many of who just became aware of the release of the draft Regulation.
The Group further asserted that given the nature and impact of the consultation to the civil society sector and in line with global best practices around the principles of fairness, transparency and proportionality in the amount of time set for feedback on public policies, we urged the Corporate Affairs Commission to extend the deadline for submission of comments on the draft company’s regulations by another 10 working days – setting the submission due date for Friday, 27 November, 2020.
