Section 52: Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-
"archives" means records which have value for permanent preservation or have been selected for transfer or have been transferred to a archival establishment;
"business houses or companies" means companies registered under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, excluding private companies as defined in the Act and Government owned companies;
"Council" means the National Archives Advisory Council established by this Act;
"Director" means the Director of National Archives appointed in accordance with this Act;
''functions'' includes powers and duties;
"general schedules" means retention and disposal schedules of keeping records, that is, of records common to most, or to a number of, public offices;
"Minister" means the Minister charged with responsibility for National Archives;
"National Archives" means the public office established by virtue of section 1 of this Act;
"non-current records" means records that have ceased to be in current use and includes closed volumes of files, registered or other assemblies of records;
"private body" includes a non-governmental association, society or other grouping of persons, a family or private company established under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, excluding business house or public company dealt with in sections 45 and 46 of this Act;
"public office" means any Ministry, department, bureau, commission, board, corporation, council, agency, company or any other office of the Federal Government and includes the Federal High Court, the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the National Assembly;
"records" means all papers, registers, printed matters, books, maps, plans, photographs, microfilms, cinematographic films, sound recordings, or other documentary material regardless of physical form or characteristics made or received by public or State offices, or by business houses or companies, private bodies or individuals in pursuance of their legal obligations or in connection with the transaction of their proper business, but does not include library or museum material made or acquired solely for reference or exhibition purposes, extra copies of records kept only for convenience of reference or stocks of publications;
"retention and disposal schedules" are lists showing which records are to be transferred to an archival establishment or disposed of and when;
"State office" means any Ministry, department, bureau, commission, board, corporation, council, agency, company or any other office of the Government of a State in Nigeria and includes the High Court of a State and the House of Assembly of a State.
(2) Where records created at different dates are, for administrative purposes, kept together in one file or other assembly all the records in that file or assembly shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as having been created when the latest of those records was created.