FG plotting to end veiled ownership of companies, businesses, property in Nigeria
As part of establishing transparency in business ownership so as to remove official difficulties in computing and assessing exact tax payable by either the firm or Nigerian citizen, indication has emerged that end is in sight for secret ownership of companies and properties in Nigeria.
This was the pronouncement of the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) week-long activities in Abuja.
Already, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is working in collaboration with the government of the United Kingdom to build an open beneficial ownership register that will house ownership data, which will bring anonymous company ownership to an end in Nigeria.
Industry analysts say veiling of company ownership is a strong source of tax evasion by several politically exposed persons (PEPs) and others who are closely associated with the government.
Besides, they agreed that such a policy will curtail looting of government treasury for use in the development of private investments which are usually shrouded in secrecy from the public.
Osinbajo noted further that the Presidential initiative on continuous audit in the Federal Ministry of Finance was set up to clean up the federal payroll and pension system across all the ministries, departments and all agencies.
The VP averred that “The initiative has worked in this regard and helped the Federal Government saved more than N200 billion by eliminating ghost workers as at March 2018.”
To back up transparency initiatives of the government, Osinbajo added that currently, all the 106 government agencies now have Freedom of Information (FoI) desk officers who make information readily available to whoever wants it in compliance with the FOI Act.
