{
  "id": 7685658,
  "title": "CAC mulls single database for beneficial ownership register",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/cac-mulls-single-database-for-beneficial-ownership-register",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-16T00:58:54.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Daily Trust",
    "slug": "daily-trust",
    "url": "https://dailytrust.com/cac-mulls-single-database-for-beneficial-ownership-register/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has proposed a unified database for beneficial ownership information in Nigeria to enhance transparency and fight corruption, illicit financial flows, money laundering, terrorism financing, and corporate structure abuse. CAC Registrar-General/Chief Executive, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, SAN, made the suggestion during a training session for journalists and civil society organizations. Currently, Nigeria operates three separate beneficial ownership transparency registers under different institutional frameworks: the CAC's own register, one maintained by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) for entities in free trade zones, and another concerning the extractive industries handled by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) framework. Despite the justified statutory reasons for these sectoral arrangements, the CAC asserts that the information sought by the three systems is largely the same. It aims to create a single national framework with the CAC corporate registry as the central data backbone. Magaji emphasized that the proposal does not intend to infringe upon NEPZA or NEITI's statutory duties but to ensure information from different institutions can be linked together. He stressed that fragmented data makes it challenging to grasp a company's full ownership picture, especially when businesses operate across various sectors and regulatory environments. According to the Persons with Significant Control Rules, 2022, the legal and regulatory framework in Nigeria utilizes the term \"Person with Significant Control\" (PSC) to denote ultimate ownership, control, or influence over entities. Magaji's aim is to \"remove the complexity\" surrounding corporate structures, making ultimate ownership and control more transparent.",
  "summary": "The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has called for the harmonisation and centralisation of Nigeria’s beneficial ownership information to strengthen transparency and combat corruption, illicit financial flows, money laundering, terrorism financing and abuse of corporate structures. The Registrar-General/Chief Executive of the CAC, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, SAN, made the call during a training on…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}