The Corporate Affairs Commission has issued fresh guidelines to assist Deposit Money Banks in the ongoing recapitalisation.

The commission, in a statement signed by its management and posted on its Facebook account on Friday, said the new directive is pursuant to its powers under Section 8 (1) (e) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act No. 3 of 2020, stressing immediate adherence to the policy.

It said the new guidelines were issued to guide proper filing for new incorporations, increase in share capitals, mergers and upgrade or downgrade of licence authorisation.

For new incorporations, the CAC stated that intending applicants must submit necessary requirements including, “An approved name reservation or availability, approval-in-principle from sector regulator, duly completed on-line incorporation form and payment of stamp duty and filing fees for the category of license authorisation.”

It added that a certificate of incorporation shall be issued within 24 hours for applications that satisfy all requirements for incorporation of companies prescribed in the, “Commission’s operations checklists available at www.cac.gov.ng/resources.”

Also, banking institutions seeking to increase their share capital through private placements, rights issues and/or offers for subscription must submit a duly signed company resolution, return of allotment and other statutory declaration by directors verifying that the issued share capital is fully paid- up

Other requirements include, “Notice of the fact that regulatory approval is required, an affidavit deposed to by a director of the company to the effect that regulatory approval is required for the increase, an amended memorandum of association reflecting the new share capital.

“Payment of stamp duties and filing fees, Issuance of a letter acknowledging notice of increase and requirement of regulatory approval, filing of regulatory approval and the issuance of a certificate of increase.”

Under this category, the commission warned that the notice of the fact that regulatory approval is required must be filed in accordance with the provisions of Section 127 (3), (4) & (5) of CAMA.

“Annual returns and information on persons with significant control must be filed up-to-date and certificate of increase shall be issued within 24 hours of filing of regulatory approval,” it said.

Similarly, small and medium banking institutions seeking to merge must submit duly signed special resolution for merger by each of the merging companies.

Other requirements are “the scheme of merger duly approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“A certified true copy of court order authorising Extraordinary General Meeting of each of the merging companies. Evidence of publication of court ordered meeting in two newspapers and the Federal Gazette and a CTC of Court order sanctioning the Scheme of Merger.

“All enquiries and complaints on these guidelines and applications submitted in pursuance of the recapitalisation exercise should be addressed to bankrecapitalization@cac.gov.ng or call +234 816 920 9551,” the statement added.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has disbursed $148m to 29 authorised dealers as part of steps to stabilise the foreign exchange market amidst the recent free fall of the naira. 

A statement posted on the apex bank’s website on Friday noted that the sales were made to the dealers on Monday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 23, 2024, between an exchange rate of N1470.00/$1 and N1510.00/$1.

This development comes two weeks after the CBN sold $122.67 million to 46 authorised dealers in a move aimed at promoting market stability and reducing volatility. 

A week ago, it also announced that $20,000 is to be sold to each BDC at the rate of N1,450/$1.

Despite this move, the naira has depreciated against the US dollars, trading above N1,600 on Thursday at the official market.

The statement read, “The Central Bank of Nigeria sold a cumulative sum of US S148,000,000.00 in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange market to authorised dealers on July 22 and 23, 2024.

“The sale of foreign exchange was to 29 authorised dealer banks at an exchange rate of 1470.00/US$1-1510.00/US$1.”

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has announced that its job application portal is currently experiencing downtime due to an ‘unprecedented’ surge in traffic.

On Friday, NNPC announced a recruitment exercise for qualified candidates, with the application period set to close on August 20.

Checks by Vanguard revealed that the agency’s website is displaying server error messages.

In response via X, NNPC stated that their technical team is actively working to resolve the issue.

“Due to unprecedented traffic to the NNPC Ltd. career page from applicants applying for vacancies, the site is currently experiencing slow load times,” the statement reads.

“Our technicians are working diligently to rectify the problem as quickly as possible. Please be assured that the application process deadline remains August 20, 2024.”

NNPC also reassured applicants of a transparent and merit-based recruitment process, urging capable Nigerians to take advantage of this unique opportunity.