Content creators should register as businesses

By Omeiza Bilal

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has vowed to enforce the laws regulating content creators on different social media platforms, insisting that all of them must register as stated in the provision of the law and as a body.

The Registrar-General of CAC, Hussaini Magaji stated this during a meeting with Opay Digital Services where it noted that there is no excuse for content creators who fail to register because the commission has different types of registration.

He further explained that failure to register one’s business in Nigeria is a crime that is punishable as ignorance is not an excuse.

He stated, “Bring yourself to full registration. If you are a content creator on the internet, you have followership, and you are gaining from it, you must register.

“That is the provision of the law. And we are all out to enforce the provision of the law.

“That is why we have different classes of registration, company, business loan registration. There are various classes of registration that can accommodate any kind of business you are doing.”

Magaji explained that the commission had opted to include the registration process to formalize individuals into the system, aligning with President Bola Tinubu’s revitalized agenda for hope.

He emphasized that the president aims to provide 50 million youths with employment opportunities, facilitate wealth accessibility, eradicate poverty, and promote youth employment.

He said, “Failure to do so is a crime in Nigeria. In the course of this, we can create jobs. Last week, we were at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, where we accommodated two million small businesses for registration. Today, we are here to receive another bulk of small businesses.”

The content creation segment of the creative industry in Nigeria has seen huge growth in the last decade leading to huge revenue on the part of actors. However, governments at different levels in the past had turned a blind eye to the industry in terms of its contribution to GDP, registration and taxation.

The boom in the content creation and skit-making space is propelled by the huge youth population in Nigeria and across Africa, deepening penetration of the internet into communities and the availability of smartphones.

In a recent report, the FIRS noted that it had no plans to tax content creators since Personal Income Tax (PIT) is outside its purview.