How To Register A Company With The CAC in Nigeria (2024)

With regards to enlisting a company in Nigeria, it’s an hitch-free process if probably you have a guide to get you started. With this easy process, business people and investors can set up their companies or their brands in the country, without any problem. Coming towards the core of the registration process, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is answerable for all processes on this. The body was set up by the Companies and Allied Matters Act, which was set up in the year 1990 to control the arrangement and the board of companies and organizations in Nigeria. In the course of this write-up, we will look at how to register a company with the CAC in the country.

Primarily, the Corporate Affairs Commission is given with the responsibility of enrolling organizations and companies in Nigeria. It is an unquestionable requirement for company registration in the country and also if you want to maintain a legitimate business here. Let’s take a gander at how to get the registration process done.

Eligibility and Requirements to Register a Company in Nigeria

• Age requirements:  At first, you must be above 18 years and same applies to your staff. The members of your intending to register company must be at least 18 years of age.
• Company size: There is a minimum and max limit of the number of personnel working in your company. Before registering a company in Nigeria, it should have members in the range of 2 to 50.
• Members: Additionally, you will be unable to register a company in Nigeria if any of your members are of unsound mind, disqualified by the CAMA, or bankrupt. All these should be properly put into consideration.
• Limit of share capital: It should also be noted that the minimum limit of share capital required to enlist a company in Nigeria is NGN 10,000.

Guide on How to Register Your Company with the CAC in Nigeria

Below is the rundown of step-by-step procedures to get your business registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in the country:

Step 1: Have a Business Name

Certainly, the initial step for any person to start an organization is to get its name. This will be followed by getting it registered with the specialists. On account of Nigeria, subsequent to picking an appropriate name for your business it ought to be speedily submitted to the CAC website to check for its availability. Generally, you ought to submit two names so that on the off chance that one is taken, the other may be available.

A name can be disallowed in the event that it currently exists with another owner, or incorporates disallowed words, for example, ‘Public’, ‘Central’, ‘Government’ or ‘Property’ without the necessary authorization. On the duration, it normally takes as long as seven days to finish the process of business name enrollment in Nigeria.

Step 2: Set up the Memorandum of Association (MOA)

The process of setting up the Memorandum of Association is best done by an attorney or lawyer. He/she is equipped for this task and all the connected archives dependent on the goals of the organization you wish to register. It is the attorney’s work to demand the names of the underlying endorsers, directors just as the investors. Every director or endorser should be over the age of 18, must be sound mentally, and should not have been sentenced for any wrongdoing before. Also, the company’s directors are needed to give a methods for ID to investigation by the CAC.

Step 3: Fill the Pre-Registration Form

When the reports have been appropriately arranged, you will then be required to fill a form by the CAC, referencing all the essential subtleties. Then you will submit it to the Corporate Affairs Commission once more, along with all the necessary documents. In the course of this process, you can also have a company secretary for your business who can go about as a legal counselor or a recorder.  The person will be totally liable for recording the documentation with the CAC after the organization is registered.

Let’s look at how the documentation process is being carried out. The process of documentation is as per the following:

1. All directors should fill the Particulars of Director form [Form CAC 7]
2. One director should fill the Statement of Share Capital and Return of Allotment form [Form CAC 2]
3. One director and the Company Secretary need to fill the Notice of Situation/Change of Registered Address form [Form CAC 3]
4. An individual or firm licensed by the Corporate Affairs Commission can fill the Declaration of Compliance with the Requirements of the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) form [Form CAC 4]
5. In any event two directors need to fill the form delegating a Company Secretary for the organization.

Step 4: Pay the Stamp Duty and Filling Fee

In the wake of filling the registration form along with the preparation of the MOA, the following step is the payment of stamp duty. This is done at an arm of the Federal Inland Revenue Services. The stamp duty is generally paid at an assigned bank into the record of the Federal Inland Revenue Services. After the installment, the company or the person doing the process continues to the Stamp Duty Commission, where the Memorandum and Articles of Association (MAA) with a portion of the incorporation forms are stamped.

After finishing the process, the filled form together with the stamped records are submitted to the Corporate Affairs Commission. The Certificate of Incorporation will probably be returned after around a month and a half from the date of submission.

Step 6: Make Available the Scanned Copy of Your Documents

After going through the above process, the next thing to do is to prepare the signed scan copy of your pre-registration documents. This are the documents that was mentioned in step three of this guide. After preparing them, they must be further uploaded online as follows:

• Form CAC1.1
• Memorandum and Articles of Association
• Recognized form of identification for Director(s)/Subscriber(s) and Secretary
• Evidence of payment to CAC
• You can upload all these documents for processing

Step 7: Submit the Original Documents of Your Company

Yet another thing to do after making your original documents available, is to submit them. This is the last step as all you have to do is to submit all the originals of the documents which were scanned in the preceding step. The following is the list of the documents that will be required.

Documents Required for Company Registration in Nigeria

• A notice of the registered address of your company or business
• The Memorandum and Articles of Association (MAA)
• Receipt of payment of your stamp duties
• The list of the first directors of your company with their particulars and consent
• Statement of compliance by a legal practitioner

Conclusion

We have given a detailed guide on how to register a company with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Nigeria. This write-up also incorporated the eligibility criteria, requirements, documents and most importantly the rundown guide to carry out the process of enlisting your company in Nigeria.