The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in a move against fraudsters has expressed determination to block suspected fraudulent applications aimed at registering new companies similar to existing ones trying to take over lands belonging to others.
The move is part of measures put in place by the current administration to further boost its fight against corruption.
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued by CAC and signed by its Head of Media, Mr Rasheed Mahe, on Sunday in Abuja, saying that high incidence of applications with names closely similar to existing ones were recorded recently.
According to NAN, the statement quoted the Registrar General of CAC, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, as stating this at a Customers/Stakeholders’ Forum held in Lagos.
What the Registrar General of CAC is saying
Abubakar said that the commission will continue to remain vigilant to ensure that fraudsters don’t take over other people’s lands.
He said, “The commission had upon the commencement of the implementation of CAMA, 2020 invoked the provision of Data Privacy and Protection Act to eliminate incidences of presenting cloned signatures to the CAC for registration purposes.
“In view of the provisions of the law, the commission discontinued the issuance of certified true copies of some documents. Certified extracts had replaced CTCs in accordance with provisions of the law.’’
Abubakar expressed concern that in spite of the provisions of the Data Privacy and Protection Act, some customers were still yet to accept the new arrangement which was invoked to check fraudulent transactions amongst others.
The CAC boss, in his analysis of the ongoing reform initiatives by the commission, said the agency was reviewing its checklist for some services, adding that it would deploy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system toward resolving customer challenges real-time.
He cautioned accredited agents against sharing their access to CAC portals with others to guard against fraud and also revealed that the commission had completed work on the insolvency framework.
According to him, the commission will soon expose the regulation to the public through its website.
What you should know
Recall that earlier in September, the CAC has moved to grant the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) access to its database to probe fraudulent companies as part of the commission’s effort aimed at collaborating with anti-corruption agencies in the fight against corruption especially in the investigation of companies with suspicious activities.
The commission had emphasized that in view of CAC’s strategic collaboration with other anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC, ICPC and INTERPOL, it had established a dedicated unit to expeditously handle requests for information and other services.
Also, earlier in August 2019, the then acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, stressed the need for the CAC, to cooperate with the anti-corruption agency in the fight against corruption, especially in its investigations of companies involved in suspicious activities.
Magu further stressed the need for the CAC to ensure that due diligence is carried out when registering any company, as part of efforts to check the prevalence of companies set up to perpetrate fraud.
