In response to Nigeria's poor performance in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business ranking, the Federal government in August 2016 set up the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council ("PEBEC or the Committee"). The mandate of the Committee is to, among other things, streamline the process of setting up a company and generally make it easier to do business in Nigeria.
At a recent forum organised by PEBEC, some changes to the process of company incorporation were announced. These include:
- Single form for Incorporation
- Self-service
- Decentralised registration
- Online search; and
- Electronic stamping and Tax Identification Number
We commend the efforts of the government and encourage investors to take advantage of these initiatives while government should extend the improvements to other areas such as post-incorporation compliance. All the processes including information requirements should be further simplified to improve Nigeria's competitiveness.
For further details, see our alert below:
Download PwC Regulatory Alert_Changes to Incorporation Process_March 2017
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