How To Register A Company in Nigeria

The process of registering your company in Nigeria is pretty straightforward. Just like registering your business name, this is done at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). It is compulsory for your company to be registered before it can be recognized as legal in Nigeria.

Step 1: Check for availability of proposed company name. The proposed name should be submitted to the CAC website to check for its availability. You may submit two names. If one is unavailable, the other might be available. A name can be rejected if it already exists, is confusing, or includes prohibited words such as ‘National’, ‘Federal’, ‘Government’ or ‘Holdings’ without special permission.

Step 2: Complete pre-registration form called CAC1.1 with the Memorandum of Association (MOA) prepared by a lawyer. The lawyer is qualified for preparing the MOA and all the related documents based on the objectives of the company you wish to register.

Step 3: Pay filing and Stamp duty fees. After the payment, the applicant proceeds to the Stamp Duty Commission, where the Memorandum and Articles of Association (MAA) with some of the incorporation forms are stamped. The payment details include:

• Reservation of Name - N500
• Registration of private company with share capital of N1million or less - N10,000
• Registration charges for private company - N10,000.00 for every N1million or part thereof
• Filing of annual returns for private company - N3,000
• Certified true copy of company registration - N10,000
• Certified true copy of other documents - N2,000 per document

Steps 1-3 can be completed on CAC portal

Step 4: Prepare the signed scan copy of your pre-registration documents for upload as follows:

• Form CAC1.1
• Memorandum and Article of Association (MEMART)
• Recognized form of identification for Director(s)/Subscriber(s) and Secretary
• Evidence of payment to CAC

Step 5: Upload the scanned documents to the CAC website for processing.

Step 6: Submit the original copies of the documents uploaded at step 6 (Form CAC1.1, MEMART, etc) to the CAC office you had selected in exchange for your certificate and the Certified True copies of the documents.