Yiaga Africa has kicked off its advocacy against obnoxious legislation in Nigeria with a stakeholder roundtable to review the Company and Allied Matters Act 2020 in a bid to ensure further legislation.
The roundtable brought together stakeholders from Corporate Affairs Commission, Academics and Civil Society Organisations to identify gaps in the CAMA 2020 assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2020.
During the meeting, Yiaga Africa presented its analysis of act where it identified certain provisions capable of derogating from citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed rights, including how the Act affects non-state actors especially NGOs, religious and traditional institutions.
The analysis revealed that, the CAMA 2020 has been rightly hailed as a huge improvement on the 1990 version as it promotes the ease of doing business and seeks to promote accountability in certain sectors hitherto left at the whims and caprices of certain individuals.
However, the analysis also revealed noticeable poor drafting of some sections of the Act, provisions capable of derogating from citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed rights, including how the Act affects non-state actors especially NGOs, religious and traditional institutions can be interpreted as unlawful and not in accordance with the provisions of 1999 Constitution as amended.
In her remark, Yiaga Africa’s Director of Programmess, Cynthia Mbamalu said the CAMA 2020 was passed without due advocacy and thus it came to citizens as a surprise. According to her, “the CAMA 2020 has some provisions that we believe threaten the existence of non-profit organisation under which Civil Society Organisations and even media organisations exist.” She categorically made reference to some sections under part F of the Act which said is a potential threat to the existence of Non-profit organisations.
