Nigeria Risks Losing Investors Over Slow Business Registration-RMAFC
A fresh alarm has been raised over Nigeria’s pace of business registration, and this time it is coming from within government. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has warned that Nigeria risks losing investment opportunities if it fails to speed up its business registration processes. The warning, delivered during a high-level meeting with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole in Abuja, puts a spotlight on a long-standing bottleneck frustrating both local and foreign investors.
Reform Pressure Mounts From All Sides
The Chairman of RMAFC’s Investment Monitoring Committee, Enefe Ekene, stressed that investors expect seamless, one-stop-shop systems where critical processes such as company registration are completed within days, not weeks, warning that failure to meet these expectations means losing valuable investment opportunities. He noted that the committee had been tracking investment-related processes and identified specific bottlenecks needing urgent attention. The concern is not abstract investors operate under strict timelines and will simply route capital to countries with faster, more efficient systems if Nigeria slow business registration continues to be a barrier.
On her part, Minister Oduwole acknowledged the concerns and reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s investment climate under the Renewed Hope Agenda. Meanwhile, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) says it has not been standing still.
The CAC has deployed artificial intelligence across its platforms, enabling it to process up to 10,000 registration requests daily a significant leap from the manual systems that previously struggled to cope with growing volumes. The commission has also taken steps to lower entry barriers, having offered free business name registration for 3,500 small businesses across all 36 states and the FCT. The question now is whether the pace of reform is fast enough to keep Nigeria competitive in the global race for capital.
