The National President of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents of Nigeria (AMBAN), Fasasi Atanda,has said that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) should focus on supporting businesses rather than just registering them.
Appearing on ARISE News on Friday, Atanda critised the CAC for lacking understanding of the fintech industry. He pointed out that unlike banks with physical branches, most fintech companies rely on sub-agents who essentially function as their branches.
He said, “We needed to understand there is a lot of misinformation outside about most of the policies.Registration is not a yard stick of fighting frauds ,there are a lot of registered company today that are into frauds.”
Atanda pointed out a regulatory approach that doesn’t consider unregistered businesses, he said there are over 4.9 million businesses registered with the CAC in Nigeria, but many failed within five years.
“You can’t regulate what you don’t understand ,what you are not part of,CAC registered over 4.9million business in Nigeria as at today,”he said.
He added that “almost 50 percent of all the business registered fails every 5 years ,so CAC priorities must be establishment and availability of business not about registration.”
Atanda argued that the current regulations create a disconnect between a main organization and its sub-agents.
He emphasised that the law doesn’t require those agent operating under a business name to register again but individual business.
Atanda said, “It’s not correct to say branches of GTB banks at a location should go and register likewise Monipoint or Opay to go and register with CAC , that is not what the law says.”
The association president added the new CAC regulations are making it difficult for many small businesses to stay afloat. These businesses struggle to get by with working capital as low as N20,000, and the CAC’s requirements add another burden.
He said, “CAC is trying to chase a lot of people out of job, the smallest of the agent are surviving with as low as N20,000 in terms of working capital and you as asking them to come and pay over 15 to 20k for registration.”
Atanda questioned the CAC’s enforcement tactics, pointing out that the Central Bank of Nigeria memo requiring registration only applied to non-individual agents. He condemned the CAC for targeting individual POS operators and threatening them with police action by July 7th.
“The CBN memo that instructed agents should register,is talking about non individual,so why is CAC enforcing people and threatening to send police after the POS operator by July 7,” he said.
“We only want to seek the clear interpretation of the law concerning the registration , also stop CAC from sending police to harass the innocent jobless Nigerians outside there. Most of those agent seen outside are branches of the fintech companies not just standing alone as an Individual”,Atanda concluded.
Boluwatife Enome
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