Senate to amend CAMA to boost investment

In a bid to further liberate Nigerian economy from statutes stifling business practices, the Senate will tomorrow consider a Bill to amend the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).

The Bill which proposed to amend the Companies and Allied Matters Act (Chapter C20) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 (CAMA) is being sponsored by Senator representing Kebbi North and Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi.

The CAMA  was enacted in Nigeria as a decree of the military government in 1990.

According to a statement by Ezrel Tabiowo,  Special Assistant (Press) to President of the Senate, ”The Bill seeks to provide an efficient means of regulating businesses, minimise the compliance burden of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), enhance transparency and shareholder engagement, and promote a friendly business climate in Nigeria.”

His statement further read in part: “The legislation presently before the National Assembly will also address the seeming stagnancy and primitive methods of doing business in Nigeria, essentially to meet up with the present international best practice as well as promote ease of doing business.

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“The introduction of model netting provisions in the Bill as a means of mitigating credit risks, according to Abdullahi, would promote financial stability and investor confidence in the Nigerian Financial Sector, and increase investor confidence in the Nigerian Financial Sector as well as all sectors of the economy.

“Similarly, the economic impact of the provisions of the Bill would ensure more business-friendly regulation for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

“The amendment to CAMA is also expected to have the potential to increase activities of MSMEs, with the overall effect of growing the Nigerian economy in the process, providing more jobs and guaranteeing economic stability.”

Reacting to the introduction of the bill by the Ninth Assembly, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said its passage and assent into law would rank Nigeria in the first 100 countries in ease of doing business.

He promised that the Senate would expeditiously consider and pass the bill into law given its significance towards strengthening the economy.

“Presently, we are one hundred and thirty-one in the ranking of doing business in the world.

“If we pass the CAMA bill, and the President signs, we will move to be within the first one hundred, that means we will jump over thirty positions to be a better country with the ease of doing business. So, it is a very important bill for all of us.

“Of course, in the last Senate, all the processes were conducted on this bill, so there will be no need for us to waste too much time on it.”