By Dike Onwuamaeze
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called on the federal government to urgently gazette the Company and Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA), which was assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 7, 2020.
A statement signed by the Director-General of LCCI, Dr. Muda Yusuf, noted that the non-release of the CAMA 2020 gazette many weeks after its legislation and presidential assent was another case of how bureaucratic bottlenecks could impede the country’s economic progress.
The statement noted that businesses whose operation depended on the new legislation are currently in limbo because of the delay in releasing the official gazette of the law to the public.
Yusuf said: “The situation has created enormous uncertainty in business decisions that require the legislative anchor of CAMA 2020 to progress. As it were, a legislative vacuum has been created as the CAMA 1990 has been repealed while the CAMA 2020 is yet to be gazetted six weeks after its presidential assent.”
He pointed out that the implication of this delay “is that the formal copy of the law is not yet available to the public, therefore, the law cannot be operationalised.”
Yusuf added that owing to its nature as significant “business legislation, the non-availability of the gazetted copy of the CAMA 2020 has stalled many activities in the business environment that are anchored on the new legislation. Additionally, the regulations that ought to be issued by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on account of the new legislation have equally been stalled because there is no formal document to act upon.”
The chamber also observed the need for an accelerated implementation of the e-government programmes in order to make the public service smarter, efficient and cost effective.
“It has become imperative for the electronic copies of official publications to be promptly disseminated to the public to ensure swift activation and access to the benefits and values, which such publications offer for the economy and the society.
“We urge the National Assembly and other relevant agencies of government to expeditiously gazette the CAMA 2020 and make copies available to the public,” the LCCI said.
