Do you have a company that hasn’t filed its yearly reports for a long time? The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Nigeria has announced it will give over 91,000 inactive companies a 90-day time limit to submit all overdue annual returns. If they fail to do this, they will be removed from the register.
These are companies that haven’t submitted annual returns for the past ten years. The CAC shared this update on their
website on Wednesday.
The notice is called “NOTICE OF INTENTION TO STRIKE OFF COMPANIES FROM THE REGISTER.”
Why Annual Returns are Important
According to the CAC, any company that has been inactive for the last ten years will be delisted based on Section 692 (3) (4) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act No. 3 of 2020.
This section of the law requires the CAC to remove the names of inactive companies from the official list.
However, the CAC advises these companies to submit their missed annual returns to avoid being delisted.
An annual return is a mandatory yearly payment that every registered company or NGO must make to the CAC. It doesn’t matter if the company or NGO has been active or not.
Checks on the CAC website show that more than 91,000 companies are affected.
Part of the CAC’s statement reads: “This is to inform the General Public that the Commission, following its powers in Section 692 (3) (4) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act No. 3 of 2020, intends to strike off from the Register names of defunct or dormant companies that have not filed Annual Returns for a period of 10 years.”
“A full list is published on the Commission’s website www.cac.gov.ng. These companies have 90 days from the publication date to file all outstanding Annual Returns and send an email of this fact to activation@cac.gov.ng to remove their names from the list.”
The CAC also noted that it is illegal to do business with a company name that has been delisted from the register. Such a company is considered officially dissolved.
Background Information
Eight months ago, Newslodge reported that the CAC announced its plan to delist 91,843 companies for not filing their annual returns.
On December 5, 2023, the CAC provided an update stating: “Following its earlier notice published on August 2, 2023, the Commission hereby informs the General Public that the list of Companies that have failed to comply with the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, to file up-to-date annual returns, is now ready for publication under Section 692 of the Act.”
“Companies that filed complete annual returns in response to the earlier notice should check the updated list on the Commission’s website to confirm removal.”
Companies that have filed their returns but still see their names on the list should email compliance@cac.gov.ng within 30 days, proving they did file.
The CAC explained that a company removed from the register cannot do business unless the Federal High Court orders that its name be added back to the register.