The Open Government Partnership (OGP) has said the full implementation of a beneficial ownership registry in Nigeria will help to end the smuggling of over N6 trillion ($15 billion) of illicit finances from the country.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ consultation meeting on its implementation yesterday in Abuja, the CEO of OGP, Sanjay Pradhan, said the World Bank estimated 70 per cent of all major corruption cases in the world involve anonymous shell companies between 1980 to 2010, which the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers and Pandora Papers tried to unmask owners of the illicit wealth.
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Daily Trust reports that the registry helps to reveal identities of shareholders and real owners of companies.
Pradhan said, “When beneficial ownership registry can be created and credibly implemented, it can shed a spotlight on these anonymous shell companies and it can help stem $15bn of illicit flows out of Nigeria. That is what is at stake here.”
While commending the federal government for amending the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, Pradhan harped on the need for a collective leadership and effort to ensure the registry works.
The Registrar General/CEO of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Alhaji Garba Abubakar, said the commission had begun the implementation of the registry for companies to disclose real owners who held from five per cent stake in them.
He added that the registry would include government agencies with chief accounting officers as the beneficial owners, while those listed on the stock exchange would be required to give information on their shareholders for transparency.
