By ABUBAKAR YUSUF

More informal businesses in the country would soon be formalized as Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) seeks partnership with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to register 2,000 micro and small businesses for free in the Federal Capital Territory.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Abuja Enterprise Agency, Shehu Abdulkadir, who stated this in Abuja on Wednesday during a courtesy visit on the Registrar-General of the Commission, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, said the proposal was to complement the just concluded Federal Government’s free registration of 250,000 business names.

A statement made available by Rasheed Mahe, Head, Media of CAC, mentioned that Shehu Abdulkadir said the plan would also boost President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years and revealed that the six area councils of the FCT would be covered in the proposed project.

Abdulkadir therefore requested the CAC to grant a 50 per cent waiver to enable them undertake the project aimed at formalizing 2,000 informal businesses, amongst other objectives.

Speaking further on the activities of the AEA which has poverty alleviation as a key mandate, the Managing Director said since its creation in 2006, the agency has promoted series of youth entrepreneurship schemes involving mostly youth corps members who later became self-employed.

The MD AEA also revealed that in accordance with their mandate, AEA was involved in the training of 362 retiring Staff of the FCT to, amongst others, ensure that they remained happy after retirement.

He used the forum to applaud the series of reform initiatives being implemented by the Commission under the leadership of Alhaji Garba Abubakar and urged him to sustain the tempo.

On the just concluded FG’s free 250,000 registration of business names which the AEA served as the Aggregator for Abuja, Shehu Abdulkadir expressed satisfaction with the support and cooperation received from the CAC.

He also commended the CAC for maintaining the best and most visited Stand out of 14 Agencies present at the One-stop shop located within the AEA premises and the deployment of what he called an excellent Officer to facilitate the project.

Responding, Registrar-General/CEO of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, noted with delight the proposal of the AEA which, he said, had a long standing friendly working relationship with the Commission.

Alhaji Garba Abubakar therefore pledged to accord priority to the proposal by obtaining necessary government approval to kick-start the project in record time.

He used the forum to restate his commitment to continue to pursue meaningful reform initiatives aimed at ensuring that the CAC operated in line with global best practices.

It would be recalled that the Corporate Affairs Commission recently ended the registration of the free 250, 000 business names which commenced on 19th October, 2020 across the 36 States of the country.

The project formed part of the Federal Government’s post-Covid-19 Pandemic survival intervention to support micro and small businesses to formalize their businesses.

During the period, the Federal Government approved the free registration of 6, 606 Business Names in each of the 34 states while Abia, Lagos, and Kano had 7,906, 9,084 and 8,406 respectively