SERVICOM rates CAC high in service delivery

The Service Compact with all Nigerians (SERVICOM) has rated the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in the quality of service delivery to Nigerians.

Mrs Nnenna Akajemeli, National Coordinator SERVICOM, presented the SERVICOM Compliance Evaluating (SCE) reports of selected states offices to CAC Registrar-General, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, on Wednesday in Abuja.

The objective of SCE, she said, is to ensure citizen focused service delivery in MDAs to identify gaps in service delivery and making recommendations to improve customers satisfaction and accountability. Akajemeli said CAC had done well in all the locations visited by SERVICOM team, except in some areas identified and recommended for its improvement. According to her, customers interviewed at the Headquarters for instance complained that fees charges for daily search from N2, 000 to N50, 000 were too high. She added that the hike in such charges had made access to service cumbersome to its customers. “The management of CAC should consider reducing the fee for daily search to accommodate all customers. This will ensure that all customer group have been put into consideration. “ The SERVICOM boss also identified downtime experienced by the customers when making an online application, thereby making documents submitted not received, resulting to the query of such documents. “Some customers complained of technical glitches in the system, resulting in the challenges during the registration process that take a significant amount of time to resolve”. She also identified other areas of weaknesses to includes direct interaction with customers, outdated computer system in some offices visited among others. Akajemeli, nevertheless, lauded the CAC management in area of monitoring of staff performances through a dash board to ensure that all task queue sent daily were cleared daily. She recommended ‘adoption of customer-centric approach service delivery’ among other approaches for the commission to provide opportunity for a staff to directly interact with customers. Responding, Abubakar, thanked SERVICOM for the reports which was carried out across the commission offices, adding that it was so important to them. On charges and others, Abubakar admitted that the commission had some challenges ranging from ticketing system for customers to lay their complaints, missing of important documents due to free access to files by customers among others. According to him, the commission observed some fraudulent acts by customers who have been having direct access to records by removing them away from the files which had forced them to operate electronically. “There are instant where complete files were being removed from this office. “So, we have to stop the system of giving people access to our files, even if you must have access, we make it so expensive. For you to require this access, you have to be under supervision . “We have introduced other systems and if you must conduct a search, we make it so expensive to discourage people from coming here.” The CAC boss explained that the electronic system introduced since 2021 became imperative to protect the integrity of their records. He added that the commission had introduced a call centre with agents who receive calls and could chat directly with the customers. According to him, the centralisation system in the commission is a deliberate decision because of electronic systems for effective processes. He, however, advised the CAC management not to take SERVICOM reports as an indictment, rather as a feedback mechanism for service improvement. (NAN)

Communiqué of A One Day Roundtable on Nation Building and Democracy: The Imperative of Participation, Equity and Equitable Development of Northern Nigeria

The Democratic Research Institute, Kaduna on Friday 12th May, 2023 at Arewa House Banquet Hall, Powered a one day roundtable meeting in Kaduna for various stakeholders of the Northern Region of Nigeria with the Theme: “Nation Building and Democracy: The Imperative of Participation, Equity and Equitable Development of Northern Nigeria”. The roundtable meeting is aimed at addressing the Socio-political challenges that face the contagious Northern Region of Nigeria. The roundtable meeting was also a response to the current political situation in the country, the promulgation of the 10th National Assembly particularly its leadership and the need to avoid the crisis of misrepresentations and distributions of rewards for political participation in the 2023 general elections particularly the presidential election. This is evident in the table below showing percentage of votes across the Six Geo-political Zones.

Table showing percentage of Votes across the Six Geo-political Zones

Based on the contributions of the North in the just concluded General Elections, as evidenced in the table above, the roundtable, which drew participants from all the nineteen Northern states, concluded that the progress, transformation and development of the region is hinged on its stake in government, particularly access to political, economic incentives and opportunities and therefore resolves as follows:

1. Demand the leadership of the National Assembly in consonance with the provisions of section 14 and sub- sections (1), (2) and (3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. This is necessary because the North is not in control of both the Executive and the Judiciary arms of government. THIS DEMAND IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.

2. The North also demands fair share of ministerial and other appointments. Such appointments should take cognisance of competence, integrity and track record, otherwise the region is left with no option than to deinvest its support for the government and the party in subsequent elections.

Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba

Dr. Benjamin Izra Dikki Chairman Secretary