The Federal Government has extended by 90 days the window for registration of business names at the reduced cost of N5,000.

This is in furtherance of its effort to enhance the ease of doing business in the country aimed at deepening the benefits of current reform initiatives and support the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The deadline extension was disclosed by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) at the weekend in Abuja. The Acting Registrar General, CAC, Lady Azuka Azinge, said at the last media roundtable that the Commission had written to the appropriate authority seeking extension of the reduced cost of N5,000 for registering small businesses in the country.

The request came after the Federal Government last year directed the CAC under its Business Incentive Strategy (BIS), to reduce the cost of business name registration from N10,000 to N5,000 for a period of three months effective October 1 -December 31, 2018.

The BIS aims at creating a window for MSMEs to formalise their businesses, which will enable them own corporate account with banks, have access to loans, grants and other government interventions.

Upon the expiration of the initial three months window, the Commission said it received several requests from states and other agencies seeking extension of the 50 per cent fee reduction promo.

It further stated that, “in view of the benefits of BIS, coupled with the demand for extension by stakeholders, it became imperative for the Federal Government to further extend the period by another three months (January 1 – March 31, 2019) to enable more MSMEs formalise their businesses.”

This was after the Commission had requested for extension from the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment who graciously approved three months extension of the BIS for registration of MSMEs from January 1 – March 31, 2019.

“Members of the public are enjoined to take advantage of the extension to register their business names at the reduced cost of N5,000 after the name reservation of N500,” said the CAC.

Also, it explained that “members of the public can either do it themselves online by logging onto the commission’s website: www.cac.gov.ng or visiting any of the commission’s offices nationwide.”

•Sourced from a Daily Sun report