A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COMPANY DICHOTOMY UNDER THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT 2004

Nigeria's principal companies legislation classifies all categories of incorporated companies into two broad groups, i.e. private companies and public companies.³ The CAMA has statutorily provided the distinction³ between these two broad groupings of companies in Nigeria. Under the said distinction, limitations are placed on the private company, the absence of which is supposed to be the advantages of a public company. These limitations are to the effect that a private company unlike a public company must restrict its members' rights to freely transfer their shares; it cannot have members in excess of fifty persons and it cannot access the capital market for capitalization or otherwise.⁴