Key Takeaways
- ACRA and SID launched the Company Director Fundamentals (CDF) programme on 28 August 2026, with registration opening in October 2026.
- The programme runs across 10 modules: 6 free foundational modules (CDF 101) and 4 paid advanced modules (CDF 201).
- It’s open to current, aspiring, and foreign directors of Singapore-incorporated companies, regardless of company size or ownership structure.
- Completing all 10 modules earns a joint ACRA-SID Certificate of Completion, but the programme is voluntary, not mandatory.
- CDF builds director knowledge — it doesn’t replace the ongoing compliance work of a qualified corporate secretary.
The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) have launched the Company Director Fundamentals (CDF) programme, a joint training initiative that gives Singapore directors a structured way to learn their legal, fiduciary, and governance obligations. Registration opens in October 2026. If you’re a director — or about to become one — of a Singapore-incorporated company, this programme is now the baseline reference point for what you’re expected to know.
What Is the Company Director Fundamentals (CDF) Programme?
The CDF programme is a director training initiative jointly developed by ACRA and SID under a Memorandum of Understanding signed on 28 August 2026. Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah announced it at the SID Directors Conference 2026, positioning it as a way to standardise practical governance knowledge across Singapore’s boardrooms.
The programme is built around two components: a free foundational tier and a paid advanced tier. RSM Singapore and Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP supported its development, and a multi-agency working group — including the CPF Board, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), and the Workplace Safety and Health Council — will review and refresh the content over time. This isn’t a one-off webinar; it’s designed as a recurring feature of how Singapore trains its directors.
Directors who complete every module receive a joint Certificate of Completion from ACRA and SID.
What Does the CDF Syllabus Cover, and Who Should Register?
The CDF programme runs across ten bite-sized online modules, split into two stages. CDF 101 gives every director the legal and financial grounding the Companies Act expects of them. CDF 201 builds on that for directors ready to take on board-level decision-making.
| CDF 101 (Foundational) | CDF 201 (Advanced) | |
|---|---|---|
| Modules | 6 | 4 |
| Cost | Free | Paid (fee to be announced) |
| Format | Online, self-paced, ~15–20 minutes per module | Online, self-paced |
| Core content | Duties under the Companies Act, conflicts of interest, reading company accounts, corporate tax basics | Board and shareholder decision-making, corporate actions, ESG considerations, performance improvement |
CDF 101 is the practical starting point for anyone newly appointed to a Singapore board. It covers a director’s obligations under the Companies Act, the duty to act in the company’s interests, how to spot and manage conflicts of interest, and how to interpret company accounts and meet corporate tax requirements.
Directors who complete CDF 101 also come away able to interpret their company’s own accounts rather than relying entirely on their accountant to flag issues before they become board-level problems.
The programme is open to current directors, aspiring directors, and foreign directors of Singapore-incorporated companies. That last group matters more than it might seem — a meaningful share of Singapore-incorporated companies have directors based overseas, and the CDF gives them a Singapore-specific reference point they don’t always get elsewhere. Directors of family businesses, SMEs, and multinational subsidiaries all sit under the same baseline curriculum, regardless of company size or ownership structure.
When Does Registration Open, and What Does It Cost?
Registration opens in October 2026. ACRA and SID will confirm the exact module access date and the CDF 201 fee schedule on their official channels closer to launch, so directors should check ACRA’s and SID’s websites directly rather than relying on secondhand dates.
The six CDF 101 modules are free. The four CDF 201 modules are paid, though the fee has not yet been published. Two of the CDF 101 modules — covering statutory responsibilities and fiduciary obligations under the Companies Act — will also sit permanently on ACRA’s website resources page from the fourth quarter of 2026, giving non-enrolled directors free access to the basics at any time.
What This Means for Directors of Singapore SMEs
For SME founders who also sit on their own company’s board, the CDF programme closes a gap that catches a lot of first-time directors off guard: knowing your statutory duties exist is different from knowing what they actually require of you month to month. A founder who has never sat on a board before typically doesn’t know that failing to keep proper accounting records, missing an AGM deadline, or approving a related-party transaction without disclosure are all breaches of duty under the Companies Act — not just administrative slip-ups.
In practice, what we see with most SMEs at Grof is that directors pick up their obligations reactively, usually after ACRA flags a late filing or a bank asks for board resolutions the company hasn’t been keeping properly. A structured curriculum that front-loads this knowledge — before the first AGM, not after a compliance notice — should reduce how often that happens.
The CDF programme doesn’t replace the operational side of staying compliant, though. Knowing that you must hold an AGM within six months of your financial year end is different from actually tracking that deadline, preparing the resolutions, and filing the annual return with ACRA on time. That operational layer is where most SME boards still need support, whether from an in-house company secretary or an outsourced provider. Grof’s corporate secretarial team helps Singapore-incorporated companies keep this side running so that CDF-level knowledge translates into CDF-level compliance.
In Short
The CDF programme is a genuine step up for Singapore’s boardrooms. It gives every director — first-timer or veteran, local or foreign — the same baseline understanding of what the Companies Act actually asks of them, instead of leaving it to whoever happens to read the fine print. But knowledge and compliance are two different jobs. A director who’s completed all ten CDF modules can still miss an AGM deadline if nobody’s tracking it, or sign off on a transaction without realising the disclosure paperwork never got filed.
That’s the gap a corporate secretary closes, not a training module. Grof’s corporate secretarial service keeps your statutory filings, registers, and AGM timeline running in the background, so the governance knowledge your directors pick up from CDF turns into a clean compliance record — not just a certificate.
