You Can Still Register Your Business With CAC For N5,000

From May 1 to July 31, business registration will cost only N5000, Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo has said.  Spurred by the successes recorded in the first 50% discount window for business registration in Nigeria, the federal government has directed the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to extend by three months, the special window for MSMEs.

According to a statement by Laolu Akande, special assistant to the VP on media, Osinbajo gave the directive on Monday at the first quarter MSMEs stakeholder meeting held at the Presidential Villa.

The special business name registration window of 50% discount was granted by the Federal Government through the Corporate Affairs Commission to help to bring as many MSMEs to formalize their businesses.

The vice-president also directed the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to speedily harmonise issues relating to overlapping responsibilities for product registration.

In the same vein, Osinbajo directed relevant government agencies to speedily come up with better funding strategies for small businesses in the country.

OVER 100,000 BUSINESSES REGISTERED IN SIX MONTHS 
The report also indicated that business registration increased from 54,000 to 163,000 within six months of introducing the special window for subsidized registration costs.

In his remark, Kayode Pitan, the managing director of the Bank of Industry (BOI), emphasized the need for MSMEs to establish a company to de-risk BOI loans to MSMEs.

He said the organization was working in partnership with the Development Bank of Nigeria to enhance access to finance for MSMEs by providing a guarantee for commercial banks.

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Seriously? 40 People Forfeit Their Vehicles To Lagos Govt

No fewer than 40 motorists have forfeited their vehicles to the government in about three weeks for driving against traffic, The Nation has learnt. At the Mobile Court in Oshodi, Lagos, last Thursday, Magistrate Lateef Owolesi convicted four persons and ordered the forfeiture of their vehicles to the government.

Sixty-one-year-old Thomas Onnoghen, Yusuf Ajibade, Elisha Isaac and Sodiq Hassan were convicted after pleading guilty to the charges against them.

Magistrate Owolesi said: “The only conviction is that your vehicle is forfeited to the Lagos State Government. So, these four defendants that are before this court, having undergone trial, their vehicles shall remain forfeited to the Lagos State Government. That is the judgment.

"Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) will give this judgment publicity so that people will know that once you’re found to have contravened Section 27 of the Traffic Law, you will be penalised. It doesn’t allow for usage of discretion. So, having been found guilty, your vehicle shall be forfeited to the Lagos State Government.”

Speaking with The Nation yesterday, LASTMA General Manager Olawale Musa said no fewer than 40 vehicles had been forfeited to the government in the last few weeks.

“Once your vehicle is impounded for driving against traffic, the person will forfeit the vehicle to the government. After that, the government decides what to do with the vehicle. It becomes government property. ”

The forfeiture, he said, was meant to deter others from driving against traffic.

Noting that many people have lost their lives to one-way drive, Olawale said: “By the time we start plying one-way, we compound traffic problems, it becomes very difficult for the officers to handle, and it is also very dangerous for passers-by.

“We really need to tame this tide and this is why we are telling the public to stop plying one-way. There are vital things we must learn before you drive on the road. It is not when you get to the road that we begin to teach you the road signs. If you do not know the rules, please do not play the game.”

He said some of the offenders arrested last year absconded, hence the delay in their trial.

According to him, they cannot be tried in absentia.

“You have to give them time to come. Some people run away when you apprehend their vehicles, they don’t come to court and we don’t have the power to confiscate the vehicle, it’s only the court that can confiscate a vehicle, so, they need to come to court and the court makes a pronouncement,” he said.

The offenders appealed to the government to temper justice with mercy.

Hassan told The Nation that “I was going to work in Apapa and there was traffic. I got a call that my wife, who is an asthmatic patient, had an attack. I had to follow one-way to save her life. I know I am guilty. I’m just appealing to the government to help me so that I can get my car back. I use it as a private car. If I lose this car, it will affect me and my struggling family.” 

Ajibade said he was caught at Ijora Olopa driving against traffic.

He said: “The trailers blockade the road. I thought it was the best thing for me at that time to ply one-way. I saw that the road was totally blocked. My car is Toyota Paseo, KRD 332 BP. I’m a businessman. I use the car to do business. I sell provisions. I used the car to get the goods to my customers. I admit that I’m guilty. I already know my offence. I plead with the Lagos State Government to show mercy and forgive me. I promise this will never happen again in my entire life because since when this car has been taken away from me, my business has stopped. It has affected everybody in my family seriously. I was arrested on August 2, 2018. The car is worth N550,000.”


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I Will Be The Next Senate President - Senator Ndume

A former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, has said he will emerge as the Senate President of the Ninth National Assembly. The senator said this in an interview with journalists in Lagos on Monday.

He said he was confident because he had the support of his colleagues and the leaders of the party.

Ndume said he was not in the race to bargain for juicy position, saying he had done his homework.

He stated that no party leader had asked him to withdraw for anyone, adding that the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, had explained that the party only recommended Senator Ahmad Lawan as the preferred choice and had not imposed him on the senators.

He said, “We have 109 senators and each of them have one vote. If you are contesting to be the Senate President, you have to reach out. But at the beginning, I was cautious because I am a party man. So, when the party said ‘don’t go there,’ I did not.

“But the party came out again and said, ‘You can reach out to them now,’ so I reached out to them.

“So far, the response I am getting from my colleagues from the APC and other parties is very encouraging. I am in this race to win; I am talking to everybody. I have the telephone numbers of all the 109 senators-elect and I call them.

“I have written the party, indicating my intention to contest. Even my national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, publicly said they only recommended Lawan and not that they are stopping anybody.

“As I speak with you, nobody has consulted me to say ‘don’t run for Senate President’. Everybody has the constitutional right to do that.”

Ndume, who represents Borno South in the Senate, promised to improve upon the performance of the Eighth Senate.

He promised to make the Office of the Senate President less attractive by reducing the unnecessary privileges attached to the office.

While promising to uphold the independence of the legislative arm of government, the third-time Senator promised to “work harmoniously and inter-dependently with the executive without undermining the principle of separation of power.”

The lawmaker said the North-East deserved an articulate representative as Senate President, adding that the region had suffered huge devastation with property worth over N2tn destroyed by insurgents.

Ndume, who said if given the opportunity, he would not compromise the independence of the legislature, added that his chances of becoming the next Senate President were bright.

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No More Imprisonment For Petty Offender, says Lagos CJ

Petty offenders will no longer be sentenced to prison terms, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke, has said. She spoke on Monday (yesterday) at the official presentation of the two practice directions, the ACJL Practice Direction and Restorative Justice Practice Direction, held as part of efforts to ensure effective justice system.

The event took place at the Lagos Judiciary Conference Room, Ikeja.

Justice Oke said once the Practice Directions “comes into operation on June 3, minor offences will be diverted to these centres and restorative justice outcomes applied to ensure that persons who commit minor offences will no longer end up in jail.

Read also: Lagos CJ laments absence of licensed bondsmen to bail defendants

“So long as they are prepared to take responsibility for their actions and the harm they have caused system,” she said.

Justice Oke said the magistrates’ courts, which would use the practice directions, would focus on reconciliation with the victim and community at large, rehabilitation, restitution and repair of the harm done and would as much as possible, under the law, impose non-custodial sentences, including fines, restitution orders, community service orders and so on.

The chief judge said the documents marked a history era in the criminal justice administration in the state.

“Today in Nigeria, we have seen countless cases where defendants are arrested for minor offences of burglary, wandering, two fighting and so on; they are locked up in our prisons for the flimsiest reasons and join the teeming population awaiting trial. In fact, the awaiting trial inmates account for more than 75 per cent of the inmates in our prisons today.

“They are in our prisons with hardened criminals and by the time they come out, they have been initiated into a life of crime and are ready to spread terror, death and destruction in their post-prison escapades,” she said.

Justice Oke said Lagos State has been at the vanguard in terms of criminal justice reform when it passed the ACJL in 2007, amended it in 2011, adding that other states have always followed suit, adopted and improved upon it.

“Now Lagos State is going further with these new practice directions to realise the goal of expedited trials, improvement in the case disposal rates and hopefully this will culminate in the decongestion of our prisons.

“These practice directions are being launched today in keeping with my vision to ensure speedy resolution of our criminal cases and the entrenchment of restorative justice in the administration of justice in Lagos State, to create more avenues for access to justice and a holistic approach to criminal justice administration,” she said.

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