By Saminu Ibrahim
The Senate on Tuesday passed the Corporate and Allied Matters Act, CAMA Amendment Bill, 2020.
The bill was sponsored by the Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (APC – Kebbi North),
This followed a clause-by-clause consideration of the bill in a committee of the whole.
When signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, it is expected that the bill will address aspects aimed at boosting investment in Nigeria.
According to the Senate Leader, the business landscape in Nigeria will be reorganized and liberated hitherto from the heavy constraints of several provisions in the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990, responsible for obstructing modern business practices in the light of national and global business reforms.
The bill also seeks to provide an efficient means of regulating businesses, minimize the compliance burden of small and medium enterprises, SMEs, enhance transparency and shareholder engagement, and promote a friendly business climate in Nigeria.
It will 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.
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 sector as well as all sectors of the economy.
Similarly, 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.
