Published February 2021
Updated July 2023
Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC is a government agency in charge of registration, regulation and control of companies in Nigeria. It was established by Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA 1990. Its headquarters is located in Abuja with offices in all the 36 states of the federation. A lot of reforms have taken place in CAMA and operations of CAC as provided by CAMA 2020. Some of them are the abrogation of the compulsory services of legal practitioner or chattered secretary to carry out business registration at the CAC office, introduction of online registration portal to reduce the time required to register a business to a minimum of two days. With these reforms individuals can register their businesses by themselves in real time, and without necessarily having to hire the services of an attorney and others. Another profound reform that is noteworthy are some provisions of CAMA 2020 which make it possible now for one individual to register a private limited liability company with single shareholder/director. All these are in line with the federal government policies on ease of doing business in Nigeria
Steps to Register Your Business on CAC Portal
Step 1: visit cac.gov.ng, click on Online registration
 |
| www.cac.gov.ng homepage |
Or visit pre.cac.gov.ng to be taken directly to the registration page
 |
| pre.cac.gov.ng homepage |
Step 2: Create an account
Click on Register at the top right corner to create account with your contact details and means of identification. Fill the form and click submit. A password will be sent to you through the email address you registered with. Use the password and Username you created while signing up to log in. You can reset the password and put password of your choice.
Note: you must have National Identity Number, NIN issued by National Identity Management Commission, NIMC. You must be the proprietor/director or one of the proprietors/ directors of the business you want to register. But if you intend to create account as an accredited agent, select the radio button for accredited agent at the top of the form.
Step 3: Check availability of name
Click on Public search at cac.gov.ng or visit publicsearch.cac.gov.ng to check if your proposed business name(s) is/are available or taken. This will save you the time and cost of applying for name reservation more than once because if you apply for name reservation and it happens that the names you submitted are both not available, you will have to repeat the process with another names. You can skip this step, if you are sure your proposed business name is unique and should be available or you are ready to apply for name reservation more than once. The public search portal of CAC can also be used to verify if a business (company ) is duly registered in Nigeria. For you not to fall victim of scam or transacting business with fake company, always use publicsearch.cac.gov.ng as the first step in background check and verification of a business organization. Read How To Scan Business Opportunities In Nigeria to learn more.
 |
| CAC public search portal |
Step 4: Log in for your business registration
After Creating account, you can log in to start your business registration. You can register multiple businesses with the same account.
 |
| Login screen |
Step 5: Apply for name reservation
When you log in, your dashboard will look like what’s in the picture below, just that yours will be empty.
 |
| applicant's dashboard |
Click on Name Reservation
select New name reservation.
Select Company type, Specific type from the drop downs, enter 2 proposed business names (the two names must be different, in case, the first is not available, the second will be reserved for you. But if both of them are not available, you will have to repeat name reservation process). Click Save & continue to complete other requirements.
Click on Payment. Payment invoice will be generated for you. Use the details in the invoice to pay a fee of N660, VAT and Bank charge inclusive. You can pay online on Remita platform using your internet banking details or go to any commercial banks branch and pay. Email will be sent to you acknowledging receipt of your payment.
The name reservation is processed within 2 hours, if you pay before 3 pm on week days. But if you pay past 3 pm or on weekend days, it may last more than 2 hours.
Once the name is approved, you will receive email notifying you of the approval or otherwise. The mail will contain the name reservation certificate. The certificate is usually a downloadable PDF document. Click on the PDF file to download.
Step 5: Registration
Log in to your dashboard, click on Reserved name icon. Select the name, click on register. Enter the approval code. Then fill out the necessary information.
Step 6: Make payment.
Charges are according to the company type, specific type and number of copies of Certificate you want. For Business name with one certificate, fee is N10,000.
Step 6: Download the registration information form, print the pages that requires signatures of the proprietors/ directors, and registrar of oath. The directors should sign, take the administration of oath form to the court so that the registrar of oath can sign. Upload the completed forms.
Step 7: Get your registration certificate.
The registration will be approved within 48 hours. Once it’s out, you will be contacted via the email you provided. You can then visit the CAC office you selected during registration to collect your business name registration/ company incorporation certificate.
Now your business is officially registered in Nigeria, and can now begin to enjoy the benefits of business registration.
Related articles: