Evaluation of Business Partnerships in Nigeria under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (Cama 2020)

Abstract

The previous Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990 recognized general partnership as the only
form of partnership in Nigeria at the time, it permitted individuals to enter into partnership for
business and did not regard partners as independent from the business entity. In other words the
principle in Salmon v Salmon which sees a company as a different entity from its members did not
apply to general partnership and the implication of this was that the assets of the individual
partners were unprotected from litigation and all partners had to share in any liability that arose
from the wrong doing of one of them whether they were involved directly or not, thus CAMA 1990
was seen as not being business friendly and had the capability of stifling business growth. The
signing of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020) into law was regarded as a
welcome development as it expanded the horizon of business partnerships in Nigeria by
inculcating modern and more business friendly forms of partnerships in its provisions. This article
studied and evaluated the various forms of partnership provided for under the new CAMA 2020
and how it benefits the business sector in Nigeria.