The Corporate Affairs Commission has called on social media content creators, Instagram users, and TikTok users with large followings to register their businesses with the commission in accordance with the Company and Allied Matters Act 2020.
This call comes amid alleged plans by the Federal Inland Revenue Services to incorporate media content and influencers into its tax system.
The Registrar General of CAC, Hussaini Magaji, issued the call on Tuesday during a courtesy visit by the Managing Director of Opay, Dauda Gotring, and his team in Abuja.
The Opay team’s visit aimed to ensure the regularization of 300,000 agents and merchants with the commission, aiming to expand the tax net, encourage businesses, and create more jobs for Nigerians.
Last week, the commission initiated the registration of two million small businesses in partnership with Moniepoint, a fintech company.
Magaji emphasised that social media and content creators are generating substantial income without contributing any form of tax to the Federal Government.
Magaji stated,
Magaji said, “Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. It is stated in the Company and Allied Matters 2020 that for any business to take place in Nigeria, whether you are doing business with your name or another name, you must surrender your business for registration.
” If you are a content creator on the internet and you have a large followership and you are gaining or making money from it, you must register and that’s the provision of the law.
He further mentioned that the commission will soon commence compliance checks to ensure these businesses commence tax payments to the government.
“This cannot persist; these individuals must register their businesses, given the revenue they generate from content creation.
The government is determined to ensure every business in Nigeria, irrespective of its nature, is registered with the CAC. The commission is currently registering an additional 300,000 business names from Opay.”
Magaji outlined that this initiative is part of the goal to register 20 million businesses in 2024 and achieve a target of 50 million jobs for Nigerian youths.
In response, the Opay Managing Director expressed that Opay’s operations aim to provide banking services to the unbanked population.
“Opay is prepared to collaborate with CAC to facilitate the registration of these businesses, with their consent,” he said. Gotring affirmed that Opay is actively working to sensitize account owners to register their businesses with the CAC since Opay manages these accounts.
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