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Desmond Elliott facilitates 1300 business registrations, free of charge for constituents

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2 years ago

December 21, 2021

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Not less than 1300 Surulere 1 constituents now have their businesses registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) free of charge through Hon. Desmond Olusola Elliott’s facilitation.

Elliott noted that he only facilitated the registration having gotten the hint about the programme initiated by the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria, in attempt to make more people self reliant in the constituency.

According to the lawmaker, we got 1500 slot in Surulere but about two hundred forms were not well filled, more opportunities abound for us to leverage on.

“This is a laudable project that allows people to get their businesses registered at no cost.

“It will give some form of confidence to the SMEs. It is not only that they are registered; it also gladdens my heart to note that the government is working hard to ensure that people are engaged in SMEs. It gives some form of authenticity to business concerns,” he stated.

“I go round and look for opportunity for members of my constituency and bring it back home. In the course of doing that, I stumbled on somebody who works in the office of the Vice President and that was how this programme came to be and there are more programmes coming up like that.”

It would be recalled that Elliott, few months ago, organized an empowerment programme that graduated over 100 youths in such skills as auto mechanic, hairdressing, cosmetology, and fashion designing among others.

He advised beneficiaries to utilize the opportunity of the free business registration to begin their businesses, maintaining that once they start to do business, they would be happy.

Also, Chairman of Surulere Local Government Area, Bamidele Sulaiman Yusuf, noted that it is not easy to get a business registered with the corporate affairs commission and commended the lawmaker for making it possible for the people.

“We are happy to have somebody like Elliot in our local government. It is not easy to get CAC certificate and without it, you can’t do any legitimate business. Now that they have it, they can now engage in legitimate business.

Through this, the government will also be able to know who and who to tax. There are so many people who do business and don’t pay tax but with this, the government will be able to tax them and raise funds for infrastructural development,” he said.

The elated small and medium scale business owners in Surulere Local Government Area trooped out on Monday to collect their certificates, while affirming that the gesture would further bolster their business transaction capabilities.

One of the beneficiaries, Salami Kadija, expressed happiness, saying, “I am really excited about this. I thank the lawmaker and all those involved in making this possible. With this, I now know that my business is legally registered. Secondly, I am allowed to flow like every other business around the world. I can now travel outside the country to pick goods knowing that I have my business registered.”

Another beneficiary, Alabi Joseph, said he was initially sceptical when he heard about the programme but expressed happiness that it turned out to be a reality. He advised the youths to always take advantage of such opportunities.

“When I got information about the programme, I didn’t believe it but I just decided to try it and today, it has turned out to be real. I thank Desmond Elliott and the FG for this great opportunity. It is, indeed, a great opportunity,” he said.