CAMA: We need friendly laws to develop Nigeria, CSOs tell NASS

By Angela Atabo

Some CSOs on Tuesday called on the National Assembly to create laws that would guarantee an enabling environment for them to contribute to national development rather than limiting laws.

They made this presentation at a Multi-stakeholder Review Meeting on Frameworks for CSOs Operation organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC).

The meeting was organised with support from the European Union Agents for Citizens-Driven Transformation (EU-ACT) and British Council.

The call was against the backdrop of some sections of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) which they believed were meant to shrink the space and gag CSOs and their National developmental activities.

Mr Clement Nwankwo, Executive Director of PLAC said the question with the bill was the onerous burden it placed on CSOs in terms of its provisions.

“These include management, reporting and the constrictions that it creates for civic space.

Nwankwo said: “So, for a lot of us, it is a question to remove some of those burdens and ensure that NGOs working within civic space are not burdened by the onerous provisions of the bills.

“Companies, for instance, are expected to report once a year to CAC, but the burden on CSOs is twice.

“So, these are some of the issues and then the question of appointment of what is called trustees, NGOs are individual initiatives of people who want to create developments in the country.

“Therefore, we expect that bills and laws that exist should aim to support those individual initiatives and those are the concerns that civil society has.”

Nwankwo said the meeting was organised to get legislative support for the work that CSOs were doing and to create the enabling environment for CSOs to contribute to national development.