The Corporate Affairs Commission says it is developing new business software that will make it possible to carry out registration services and conduct searches online.

The Registrar-General, CAC, Mallam Bello Mahmud, who said this on Tuesday at the commencement of an enlightenment campaign on direct registration of businesses, said with the new software, registration of companies could now be processed directly by the owners.

The programme was organised by the Growth and Employment in States at the Calabar Municipal Council Secretariat, Calabar, Cross River State.

According to the CAC boss, the software, which is expected to be deployed in July this year, will principally benefit small and medium-scale entrepreneurs who may not be able to afford the services of accredited agents.

“It is also expected that the policy will also encourage informal businesses to register, and in the long run, deepen access to finance for those classes of businesses,” Mahmud said.

He also commended the GEMS3 for its continuous support and assistance in the area of enlightenment and technical support it had been providing to the CAC in the design, development and testing of the new registration software.

In her remarks, the Cross River State Manager, GEMS3, Mrs. Geraldine Oku, said the programme was a partnership between the Federal Government, Department of International Development and the World Bank, and was aimed at reducing poverty by increasing growth, incomes and jobs across the country.

She stated that the CAC, supported by GEMS3, had embarked on an online registration process and was currently pursuing other reforms intended to upgrade its registration processes to reduce time, cost and number of procedures required to register a business in Nigeria.

The GEMS3 state manager said the business promotion campaign was aimed at promoting the benefits of formalisation to increase business registrations in the country.