Reunion Wire

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) says new Beneficiary Ownership Registrar (BOR) will help the anti-corruption agencies in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in the country.

The Registrar-General, CAC, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, made this disclosure at the free training workshop on the use of BOR, organised by the commission in Lagos on Tuesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that BOR is a portal to enable users to find the Person with Significant Control (PSC) of any entity when a search is initiated with either of the following parameters: entity’s name, entity’s number, PSC first name, and PSC surname.

Abubakar explained that the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) had been reviewed and reenacted in 2020, to provide a legal framework to support the BOR.

He noted that this was why CAC was sensitising individuals, corporate organisations and civil societies on the use of BOR, which would further help to support the Federal Government’s anti-corruption drive.

“This is just a training session on the use of the Beneficiary Ownership Register. The register was launched on May 23. This is a public register of Beneficiary Ownership Companies in Nigeria.

“The register was developed and designed in line with Nigeria’s commitment under the open government policy as well as the Extractive Transparency policy initiative to have a central register of Beneficiary Ownership of Companies.

“The register will help the government in the fight against corruption because you can easily tell who wants what in the Nigerian company.

“The register also tells you if the person is a politically exposed person.

“The register will also support the work of our anti-corruption agencies, the civil society and media organisations.

“You can easily query the database to know who wants what and the information is publicly available at no cost to the person that is searching for the information,” he said.

Abubakar said the minimum disclosure of information on its database was put at five per cent of the company’s shares.

The registrar-general added that in some countries, they were not obliged to disclose if a person owned shares less than 25 per cent.

He, however, noted that in Nigeria, various stakeholders had agreed that the disclosure should start from five per cent.

“This means if you have five per cent of shares of any company or control five per cent of the voting rights or you control five per cent of the way a company is being managed.

“Also, if by virtue of your position either within or outside the company you control the appointment of a majority of the directors of that company, then you have to disclose it in the register,” he said.

According to him, the era of using complex structures to hide the actual identity of owners of the company is gone.

He said before the initiative, people hid their ownership using complex arrangements but under the new law, they must disclose the person that actually owned the company at the point of registration.

Abubakar said the era of the owner hiding under another person to control a company was gone because they were required by law to disclose who owns what.

He noted that the law required that a beneficiary must disclose to the company within 30 days, and the company had to file to the CAC within seven days.

According to him, failure to make this disclosure or delay in the submission of the information, then the beneficiary pays a daily default penalty of N10,000 as the defaulting lasts.

Abubakar said if the beneficiary made a wrong or false disclosure knowing fully well that what he or she was submitting was wrong, then that was criminal and on conviction the person was liable to three years imprisonment.

Similarly, Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association, Session of Business Law (NBA-SBL), Dr Adeoye Adefulu, urged his members to adhere strictly to all the laws governing the policy.

Adefulu said they should take notes of sanctions that were related to not providing information on time and not providing the information at all or providing correct or wrongful information.

He said the NBA-SBL would also support members who advised companies across the country on this development of BOR.

Adefulu thanked the registrar-general for the 80 per cent success at the regulatory clinic organised by the CAC.

Participants at the event included lawyers, public analysts, journalists and Civil Society Orgsnisations. (NAN)

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Julie Okah-Donli, a former Director-General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), on Tuesday decried the dearth of professionals golfers in the country.

She said this on the sideline of the 2023 Children’s Golf Development Clinic, organised by the ladies section of the IBB Golf Club for over 200 children in Abuja.

Okah-Donli, who is also the Vice-Lady Captain, Ladies section of the club, said the idea was conceived to make the children grow up into golf-loving and golf-playing adults.

“We realise that it is easier to play good golf when you start early, as it is easier to be a professional when you start playing golf early.

“We do not have enough pros in Nigeria that can compete with other professionals all over the world.

“So we are trying to grow as many children as possible into professionals, if they so desire,” she said.

Okah-Donli said aside from golf playing, the programme would feature etiquette learning, physical exercise, among other developmental skills, which would be useful to the children’s intellectual development.

Also speaking, Comfort Olateju, Lady Captain, IBB International Golf and Country Club, said the event was targeted at children who had interest in playing the game.

“We are doing this to encourage children and to teach them what the game is all about. We will also select some of them to play the junior open game coming up soon.

“We want them to develop interest in golfing, just like Tiger Woods, who started from a young age and has become great in golf playing,” she said.

Lauretta Okolo, a parent, said the golf clinic does not only help the children to develop intellectually, but it also provided an opportunity for them to make new friends during the holidays.

“This game is a complete game as it does not only help with their physical wellbeing, it also helps the children intellectually.

“They socialise and make new friends, and it is good that the ladies section of the IBB Golf Club has started early with the children.

“This will help them to decide early if they want to play for leisure or professionally in the future,” she said.

One of the children, Jude Chukwu, appreciated the group for organising the golf clinic, adding that the training had exposed him to new skills of playing the game and making new friends.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the week-long event is tagged “Swinging into Greatness.” (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

A new police station was officially inaugurated at Onkumbula in the Oshikoto Region by the Inspector General of the Namibian Police Force (NamPol), Lieutenant General Joseph Shikongo, on Monday.

The construction of the state-of-art facility at over N.dollars 71 million follows years of complaints by residents over the lack of policing services, which forced them to travel long distances to access such services.

In his remarks, Shikongo said the government will spare no resources to invest in projects that are aimed at bettering the living standards and socio-economic development of the Namibian people.

“The development of this infrastructure is a true reflection of the Namibian government’s commitment in enhancing safety and security,” he said.

The facility amongst others has five charge offices, a boardroom, record and armoury room, radio room and server room.

It also has three holding cells, a doctor’s consultation room, two-bedroom flats and barracks with 12 rooms for males and eight for females, as well as a fuel station.

During the same event, two vehicles were handed over to ensure the mobility of the officers at the police station.

Meanwhile, Oshikoto Governor Penda Ya Ndakolo in a speech read on his behalf, said that the opening of a new police station is part of government’s efforts to bring services closer to the people in remote rural areas.

“This will also assist the community in the Eengodi and Nahale Lya Mpingana Constituencies who mostly travel long distances to access service,” he said.

He stressed that the police have been brought closer thus the community should work with the police to ensure a crime free society.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

Developers of the Green Hydrogen Project have a responsibility to ensure that local content aspirations are taken seriously and achieved, especially by creating links to build a local value chain.

This was said by ||Kharas Governor, Aletha Frederick while addressing the launch of the social economic development framework for green hydrogen here Monday.

The framework for Namibia’s first gigawatt-scale Green Hydrogen Project was launched by Hyphen Hydrogen Energy and the Namibian Government.

Frederick said leaders and frontrunners of the project must guard against unprincipled conduct, which has the potential to cause many undesirable socio-economic outcomes, which could deny local people to benefit from resources at their doorsteps.

She appealed to the pioneers of the project to be mindful of the effective governance pillar that encourages not only better service delivery, but also places emphasis on improved accountability by establishing a benchmark for good governance, which is centred on compliance to all governance instruments without fear or favour.

“It is important that opportunities provided by the development of the project should reflect a well-balanced, inclusive, and fair regional representation of all Namibians as Namibia does not encourage regionalism, racial discrimination or ethnicity, but charity should start at home,” she said.

Frederick further said the youth and small and medium enterprises from the ||Kharas and Hardap regions are given fair opportunities to fully participate in the development.

Also speaking was Keetmanshoop Mayor McDonald Hanse, who urged the government, the green hydrogen council and Hyphen give preference to Southerners in terms of employment and procurement during the green hydrogen project.

“It is an open secret that the people of the south have been excluded from the mainstream economy of the county. We understand and respects government’s principal of one Namibia, one nation, but equally do we have other frameworks like equity and affirmative action, which can be applicable in this instance so the southerner’s benefit?” he said.

Hyphen, the company that was awarded the contract to spearhead green hydrogen production, is undertaking a feasibility study of the project over a period of two and a half years, while the construction of the facilities is expected to start in 2026.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency