How To Register Your Business In Nigeria With CAC

To do business in Nigeria, you must register both the business and the business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). It is the agency empowered by law to register businesses operating in Nigeria.

With the current administration’s ease of doing business policy, the redtapism that characterised registration in the past has been cut to the barest minimum.

The agency had in March said it is looking to ensure the completion of company registration in two hours starting from December 2018. The current time frame is 24 hours and here is how to go about it:

1. Check for availability of proposed business company name. You can do that on here on the website.
2. Reserve a new Name. You can do that here.
3. Complete pre-registration form – CAC (online option) or (Download the file and fill it)
4. Pay filing fee to CAC.
5. Pay Stamp duty fee to FIRS
   • Steps 3-5 can be completed on this portal.
6. Prepare the signed scan copy of your pre-registration documents for upload as follows:
   • Form CAC1.1
   • Memorandum and Article of Association
   • Proficiency certificate (where applicable)
   • Recognized form of identification for Director(s)/Subscriber(s) and Secretary
   • Stamp duty certificate
   • Evidence of payment to CAC
7. Upload the scanned documents for processing here.
8. Submit the original copies of the documents uploaded in step 6 (Form CAC1.1, MEMART, etc) to the CAC office you have selected in exchange for your certificate and the Certified True copies of the documents.

Th above are for registering a private or public company. As time goes, I would share how to register a company limited by guarantee.