What Next After Registering Your NGO, Church, Mosque or other Associations with Corporate Affairs Commission (C.A.C.)

Just in case you missed out on my article on how to register your entity, please click the following HOW TO REGISTER YOUR NGO, CHURCH, MOSQUE, AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS WITH CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION (C.A.C.).

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.