After a few missed deadlines, Nigeria’s Beneficial Ownership Register finally went live on Thursday, ending more than seven years of waiting since May 2016 to make information and data of persons with significant control of companies in Nigeria open to the public.
The formal rollout of the register, also called “Person With Significant Control Register”, was performed by the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Garba Abubakar, who said the register would not only improve transparency in open contracting process in Nigeria, but would alsoaid the fight against financial crimes and illicit financial flows.
With the rollout, Nigeria becomes the first African country to collate and make available BeneficialOwnership information and data of companies in the country in line with global Open Ownership data standards.
The open register of beneficial owners of companies and entities in Nigeria is an initiative of the CAC, with the support of the World Bank and other international development partners, including Open Government Partnership (OGP) and Open Ownership.
The establishment of the register was in compliance with the provisions of Sections 119-123 of the Companies and Allied Matters Acts (CAMA) 2020, which mandated the disclosure of information and data of persons with significant control of corporate entities as a means of promoting transparency on matters of ownership.
. Speaking at the official rollout in Abuja, the Registrar-General of the CAC, Garba Abubakar traced the root of the Beneficial Ownership Register in Nigeria to May 12, 2016 when President Muhammadu Buhari made a commitment on Beneficial Ownership Transparency during the Anti-Corruption Summit in London.
At the London Summit, Abubakar said Buhari gave assurance that Nigeria was not only committed to establishing a public central register of companies beneficial ownership information, but also determined to implementing bilateral arrangements that would ensure law enforcement in one partner country has full and effective access to the beneficial ownership information of companies incorporated in the other partner country under a framework automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information.
He said this was a follow up to a previous commitment during a pre-Summit Conference for leaders in civil society, business and government in which he also assured the global community that Nigeria was committed to signing the Open Government Partnership initiatives.
The official launching of the Beneficial Ownership Register, the CAC Chief said, was a demonstration of those commitments, as Nigeria has become one of only six countries out of the 43 that attended the Summit to establish public central registers of true company ownership amidst global concerns on the misuse of companies and other corporate arrangements to hide the proceeds of corruption and evade tax.
He identified the other five countries to include Afghanistan, France, Kenya, the Netherlands and United Kingdom.
He said process to establish a Beneficial Ownership Register effectively began following the repeal of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 1990) and replacement with CAMA 2020, which contained requirement for a statutory framework for Beneficial Ownership (Persons with Significant Control (PSC) Transparency.
The Register, the Registrar General explained was developed by utilizing cutting-edge technological solutions that support end-to-end electronic disclosure of person with significant control information by reporting entities to the Corporate Affairs Commission and publication of the information to the general public in the form of a web-search or specialized formats (e.g. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and Comma Separated Values (CSV).
The solution, he said, features a public facing search portal (https://bor.cac.gov.ng) that enables the general public access to beneficial ownership information on relevant incorporated entities in Nigeria using on the search portal any of several search parameters, namely entity name, entity registration number, and name of the person with significant control (first name, surname or full name).
In compliance with the National Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), information provided to the general public from the search do not, however, include Personally Identifiable Information (PII), like National Identification Number (NIN), complete date of birth, residential address, phone number, etc.
“With the introduction of the Register, any person can easily ascertain who owns what in Nigerian companies and limited liability partnerships. The expectation is that the Register would greatly enhance the fight against corruption and criminality by facilitating investigations by law enforcement agencies into the true ownership and control of companies and limited liability partnerships; supporting Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in promoting citizens’ participation in public accountability and governance, as well as strengthening the capacity of the media to perform their traditional roles as watchdogs of the society,” Abubakar said.
