EU, British Council Train CSOs on Compliance to Regulatory Frameworks

Michael Olugbode

The European Union and the British Council have organised a workshop to build compliance of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country on regulatory frameworks.

Speaking at the workshop organised in Abuja, the Component 2 Manager of the European Union Agent for Citizen-driven Transformation (EU-ACT), Idem Udoekong, said the training which commenced with CSOs/Networks/CBOs in the FCT (Abuja), would be extended to Lagos, Sokoto, Kano, Rivers, Edo, Adamawa, Enugu, Plateau and Borno States.

He noted that it would be extended to all states in the country through partners and higher institutions.

Udoekong while revealing that the training was sponsored by the European Union and British Council, noted that the issue of poor compliance of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on regulatory framework was attributable to lack of the requisite knowledge and information on regulations.

He noted that: “The issue of poor compliance of CSOs to existing civil society regulations can be attributed to so many factors including CSOs lack of the requisite knowledge and information about these regulations and how to go about such compliance. 

“This assertion was reinforced by the outcome of the survey conducted by EU-ACT programme in March 2021 to establish the current levels of compliance with legal frameworks amongst its supported CSOs/Networks/CBOs in the FCT (Abuja), Lagos, Sokoto, Kano, Rivers, Edo, Adamawa, Enugu, Plateau and Borno States. 

“The survey findings, for instance, indicated that out of the 119 CSOs’ responses that were processed, less than a third of the CSOs were compliant with the CAMA law, less than 10 per cent of the CSOs were fully tax compliant and only 14 per cent of the CSOs were SCUML compliant. 

“And yet, compliance to regulatory frameworks is paramount to sustaining and strengthening civil society organisations.”

He added: “It was on this note that the programme is organising trainings for its partner CSOs/Networks/CBOs across the aforementioned 10 focal states to improve CSOs’ awareness of the important regulations (CAMA, Taxation, Anti-Terrorism and Money Laundering, and Pension) and how they affect their operation; capacitate them on how to become effective in their compliance obligation to these regulations; as well as improve their compliance to them.”

He said working in partnership with relevant regulatory agencies, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Federal Inland Revenues Service (FIRS), Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) and Pension Commission (PenCom), the training would enable EU-ACT CSO partners to gain in depth knowledge of the requirement of the laws/regulations as well as receive continuous guidance on how to effectively and efficiently meet these requirements, noting that: “Representatives of these regulatory agencies would participate (in-person) in the trainings to provide technical inputs as well as address any compliance issues participant organisations might have.”

Udoekong, while noting that compliant to regulatory framework was paramount to sustaining and strengthening CSOs and keep them out of trouble, said: “This help to sustain the organisation as if you do not comply with the law, it may create room for abuse of the system, so regulations helps credibility in organisation as they always advocate for change and reform. 

“They also need to be credible enough to fight the cause as research shows low compliance of CSOs to regulations.”

The lead resource person at the training, Prof. Adedeji Adekunle, in his address reiterated that compliance to regulation was knowledge-driven, noting that sometimes organisations do not know what to do at times and people are scared of meeting regulations which sometimes indicate they have something to hide.

He said: “These regulations if not adhered to have penalties.”

On his part, the Special Assistant to the Registrar General/CEO, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Terver Ayua-Jor stressed the need to deepen the knowledge on compliance and how it would benefit the regulator and those who are regulated.

Ayuba-Tor while noting that though so far the compliance level was encouraging, admitted that more education needed to be done.

One of the participants, James Ugochukwu of African Centre for Entrepreneurship Information and Development, said CSOs complement activities of the government, but lamented that over-regulation of the space would be shutting the door to more person engaging in civil activities.