How a privately owned company becomes registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission with a name reserved only for government agencies has dumbfounded many. The company, the National e-Government Strategies Limited (NeGSt), has as its mission statement and objective displayed on its website to be a monopoly technology consultant for the Nigerian government. It claims to be the only private sectordriven holder of the national mandate to assists MDAs cut wastages on the operations of Nigeria’s digital economy.
But a report by www.thinkers.com alleges that the company is a contributor to Nigeria’s wasted resources which it claims to help preserve. Curiously, the company has a name which is only reserve for a federal government agency. According to the company’s registration particulars, thinkers.com says that form CAC 2A, form CAC 7A and its Memorandum and Articles of Association of the company filed with the (CAC), shows clearly that the National e-Government Strategies Limited was registered as a private business outfit with registration number RC 506023.
The shocker, however, is that the National e-Government Strategies Limited appear to be forcing ownership of some shares of the company on two government agencies – Ministry of Science and Technology and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). The company, allegedly says the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and NITDA has ownership of 1,000,000 (one million) shares each in the company.
The company’s form CAC 7 also shows that NITDA and the Ministry of Science and Technology are represented on the board of the company by one Mr Peter Jack and Mr Emmanuel Edet, respectively. The thinkers.com however said top civil servants argued that the Nigerian law does not allow Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government to obtain shares in private companies directly.
The Director of Legal Services in the Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs Y. U. Odu-Thomas, said in response to an FOI request that: “I am directed to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 7, 2019, on the above subject. I am further directed to inform you that the names specifically referred in your request (Mr Peter Jack and Emmanuel Edet) are not staff of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology. “Furthermore, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology is not privy to her having shares in National eGovernment Strategies Limited or any other company.
Kindly accept the assurances of the warm regards of the Honourable Minister.” The NITDA’s Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations, Mrs Hadiza Umar, also disowned the company. “This issue has been going on since late last year and we have been responding to media queries on this. Please contact Dr Vincent Olatunji via SMS.” But the thinkers.com said Dr Vincent Olatunji did not respond to the SMS it sent to his phone number.
A senior staff of NITDA who wished anonymity claimed that NITDA does not have shares in any private company. “It is pointless to say that NITDA, as a federal government agency, does not have and it is not supposed to have shares in any private company.
We are regulators, what’s our business in owning shares in an private firms? “How can we regulate such firm or firms if we are part owners? So, it doesn’t make sense for anyone to say that NITDA has shares in a private company like the National e-Government Strategies Limited,” he said.
The paper said the National e-Government Strategies Limited, which enjoys the support of some influential people in the Ministry of Interior, is one of the vendors providing ‘consultancy services’ to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) via a contract between the company and the Interior Ministry.
It said within four years, the company was paid N1.1 billion for providing services that have no concrete value. The breakdown is as follows: In 2016, the company was paid N297 million. In 2017, it was paid N281 million. In 2018, the money it was paid rose to N302 million. And in 2019, it received N276 million.
Experts that the thinkers.com spoke with said the National e-Government Strategies Limited was registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in a clear violation of the provisions of Section 30 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2004 which stipulates that:
“Except with the consent of the Commission, no company shall be registered by a name which – (a) includes the word “Federal,” “National,” “Regional,” “State,” “Government’ or any other word which in the opinion of the Commission suggests or is calculated to suggest that it enjoys the patronage of the Government of the Federation or the Government of a State in Nigeria, as the case may be, or any Ministry or Department of Government; or (b) contains the word” Municipal’ or “Chartered” or in the opinion of the Commission suggests or is calculated to suggest, connection with any municipality or other local authority; or (c) contains the word “Co-operative” or the words “Building Society;” or (d) contains the word “Group” or “Holding.”
But the Corporate Affairs Commission, in response to a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) request by the thinkers.com explained that it consented to the use of the word “national” by the company based on a request by the National Information Technology Development Agency via a letter dated January 22, 2004. However, a top official of NITDA which the thinkers said it spoke with claimed that the letter seeking the consent of CAC for the National e-Government Strategies Limited to use words that are exclusively reserved for authorities was not official as there was no document to suggest a partnership between NITDA and the company to warrant issuance of that letter.
“I can tell you authoritatively that NITDA does not have any form of a public-private partnership with the National e-Government Strategies Limited. We don’t have that, and if anybody tells you that we do, let them give you documents to that effect. “I also want to make it clear that the letter purportedly issued by NITDA seeking registration of National e-Government Strategies Limited using prohibited words is not official because there’s no any PPP arrangement with the company to warrant that.
A PublicPrivate Partnership is not a secret arrangement. It’s an open thing that the federal government and the private companies involved celebrate. “So, NITDA couldn’t have officially issued that letter to CAC seeking consent for the registration of a private company that it has no business with. Maybe somebody used his or her influence or abused his or her office to get it written. We cannot have a PPP arrangement with the National e-Government Strategies Limited and conceal it,” he said.
Some staff of NITDA also expressed concern that officials of the National e-Government Strategies Limited often cite NITDA Act 2004 as the foundation for the formation of the company in an attempt to cover up its fraudulent registration. “In 2016, the House of Representatives mandated its Committee on Interior, chaired by Hon Adams Jagaba, to examine all agreements entered into by the Federal Ministry of Interior and any company or persons, on any matter relating to the issuance of travel document including international passports, residence permits and border surveillance and patrol.
“The company made a presentation to the company using the name “National e-Government Strategies,” which it claims derives its mandate based on the provisions of Section 6 (a) to (f ) of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Act 2004.
“The presentation, dated February 24, 2016, is titled: ‘Public Hearing on Federal Ministry of Interior Relating to Issuance of Travel Documents – Submission to the House Committee on Interior by National e-Government Strategies (NeGSt). You can check it out yourself on their official website (www.negst.com. ng),” one of the staff said.
The thinkers.com says it ran checks on the official website of the company to independently verify the claims. The findings, according to the medium, are that the website was redesigned and some features removed while new ones introduced. In an article titled, “ORIGIN OF NEGST,” the National e-Government Strategies Limited attempts to justify its formation without providing proofs, saying in the concluding part of the article that:
“All documents referenced in this letter are available for your sighting at our HQ offices, Abuja.” However, investigations by this medium indicate that there is no evidence that the National e-Government Strategies Limited is a creation of any section of NITDA Act, and there is no valid document to suggest that the company had or still has any form of a public-private partnership with NITDA to warrant its registration using words exclusively reserved for authorities.
