Now that you are registered with the Corporate Affairs
Commission, there are records that you must keep and things to do so as to
comply with the law and put proper structure to your entity.
Points 1 to 4 highlights the records that you must keep and
how to go about it, while points 5 and 6 explains the things you have to do in
compliance with the law.
1. The
law mandates that you keep the records of your entity’s income and
expenditures, sources of income, and records of your entity’s assets and
liabilities.
The easy way to go about these is to purchase
standard notebooks for each purpose or have them recorded in a single book.
In this age of information technology, the
dynamics of storing information are changing, so you may have your soft copies stored
on an e-storage device so as to complement the hard copies.
2. You
must purchase standard notebook to record the minutes of your entity’s meetings.
There is no hard and fast rule about
recording your meetings.
However, a standard Minutes of Meeting
should contain:
a.
Date of meeting
b.
Venue
c.
Members in attendance
d.
Topics for discussion and summary of
deliberations on each topic.
e.
Time meeting started and time meeting ended.
3. Purchase
standard notebook to record the details of your members.
The records of each member should include
their names, address, date on which each person became a member, date on which
the person ceased to be a member (i.e. where the person has ceased to be a
member).
You may decide to keep your Members
Register at your registered office or in some other place where you believe it
will be safely kept.
4. Purchase
standard notebook to record the details of your trustees.
Like the members register, your trustees
register should include trustees’ names, address, date on which each person was
appointed as a trustee and date on which the person ceased to be a trustee
(i.e. where the person has ceased to be a trustee).
5. Your
entity must prepare and submit to the Corporate Affairs Commission an annual
report (also known as “annual returns”) which will contain the following
details:
a.
The name of your entity
b.
Your gross income and expenditure
c.
The names, addresses and occupations of the
trustees
d.
The names, addresses, occupations and position
of members of the governing council (also known as executives).
e.
Sources of income, bankers, bank and cash
balance of your entity.
f.
Details of any land held by your entity during
the year of report
g.
Any changes in the constitution of your entity
during the year
Your annual return must be filed between 30th June and 31st December every year (except the year in which your entity was registered),
6. Finally,
your organization must prepare audited account every year and submit to the CAC
alongside your annual report.
Keeping your annual returns up to date
with the Corporate Affairs Commission is about your most important obligation
as soon as you register your entity, and considering the technical nature of
the task, it is important that you train your secretary to handle it,
otherwise, you should retain the services of a law firm to help you out.
