Nigeria: company law reform and the new national code of corporate governance

The Corporate Affairs Commission is proposing to repeal and replace the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990, the Act that contains the core provisions of Nigeria's company law framework. The Act will be replaced by a new Act - the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2016 - a draft of which was published earlier this year (see here, pdf).

Also published in draft form earlier this year, and now released in final form, is the new National Code of Corporate Governance. Produced by the Financial Reporting Council, the National Code in fact contains three separate codes: one for the private sector; one for not-for-profit entities; and one for the public sector. The private sector code applies to all public companies whether listed or not and compliance with its provisions is mandatory. It took effect yesterday. The not-for-profit code operates on the basis of 'comply or justify non-compliance'. It also took effect yesterday. The public sector code has not yet come into force: it will do so once an executive directive has been secured from the Federal Government.