Abstract

Most literature that has examined the Nigerian Companies Act 2020 (CA 2020) praised it for representing a fundamental reform of company law. In this article, we examine some of the notable provisions of the CA 2020 that have the potential to ensure a conducive environment for the growth of entrepreneurship and small businesses. However, we identify some challenges that may frustrate the effectiveness of the CA 2020 in practice. These challenges are in the contexts of the prevailing legal, social, and economic factors of public infrastructure and utility services, access to finance, international trade, and tax system. These factors need to be favourable to the Nigerian business environment for the CA 2020 to effectively exert its functional impact. Otherwise, this article argues that contrary to the position in existing literature the CA 2020 may turn out to be a mere incremental than fundamental company law reform.

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