CAC Nigeria: The Complete 2026 Guide to Registration, Fees, Free SME Signup and Delisting

What Is CAC in Nigeria?

CAC stands for the Corporate Affairs Commission. It is the federal agency responsible for registering and regulating every company, business name, and incorporated trustee in Nigeria. If a business in Nigeria is legally recognised, it is because the CAC put it on record.

The commission was established under the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990, known as CAMA. That law was re-enacted in 2020 as CAMA 2020, which is the version currently in force and the one that governs how companies are formed, run, and shut down in Nigeria today. Before the CAC existed, business registration in Nigeria sat inside the Companies Registry at the old Federal Ministry of Commerce and Tourism.

In practical terms, the CAC is the office that turns an informal Nigerian business, a shop, a consultancy, a tech startup, an NGO, into a legal entity that can open a corporate bank account, sign contracts, bid for government tenders, apply for loans, and hire staff under a registered name.

A Brief History of the CAC

The Corporate Affairs Commission was created by CAMA 1990 to take over company registration duties that had previously sat with a government ministry. The idea was to give Nigeria a dedicated, semi-autonomous registry along the lines of Companies House in the UK.

CAMA sat largely unchanged for three decades until the National Assembly overhauled it in 2020. CAMA 2020 modernised Nigerian company law in several ways that still shape registration today, including letting a single person be the sole shareholder and sole director of a private limited company, something the old law did not allow.

The CAC has also digitised heavily in recent years. Company and business name registration now runs through an online portal rather than in-person paper filing, and the commission has pushed further into AI-assisted processing with what it calls its Intelligent Company Registration Portal, aimed at cutting turnaround times and reducing manual errors in applications.

What the CAC Actually Does

Beyond registration, the CAC carries a wide regulatory mandate under CAMA 2020. Its core functions include:

• Registering business names, limited companies, and incorporated trustees (NGOs, churches, associations)
• Maintaining Nigeria’s official company registry, including the public database investors and banks use to verify a business
• Regulating post-incorporation changes, such as a change of directors, registered address, share capital, or company name
• Monitoring compliance with CAMA, including the yearly filing of annual returns
• Managing the winding-up and striking off of companies that no longer operate or fail to comply
• Maintaining Nigeria’s Persons with Significant Control (PSC) register, an open beneficial ownership register launched in May 2023 to support anti-money-laundering standards
• Accrediting the lawyers, chartered accountants, and chartered secretaries authorised to file on behalf of clients

This is why the CAC matters well beyond the moment of registration. It is also the agency Nigerian businesses interact with every year through annual returns, and the agency that can legally strike a company off the register if it goes quiet for too long, which is the delisting issue covered further down.

Types of Business Entities the CAC Registers

The CAC recognises several categories of entity, and picking the right one at the start saves a lot of cost and paperwork later.

• Business Name: the cheapest and simplest option, for sole proprietors and small partnerships trading under a name other than their own. It does not create a separate legal entity from the owner.
• Private Limited Company (Ltd): the most common structure for startups and growing businesses. Under CAMA 2020, a single person can now be both sole director and sole shareholder, and shareholders are liable only up to the value of their shares.
• Public Limited Company (PLC): for larger businesses intending to raise capital from the public or list on the Nigerian Exchange.
• Company Limited by Guarantee: used mainly for non-profits and professional associations that do not operate with share capital.
• Incorporated Trustees: the structure for NGOs, religious bodies, and associations, filed under Part F of CAMA 2020.

A local Nigerian company needs a minimum share capital of 100,000 naira. Any company with foreign shareholding must be capitalised at a minimum of 100 million naira, which is a figure foreign investors frequently underestimate when budgeting for entry into the Nigerian market.

How Much Is CAC Registration in Nigeria? (2026 Cost Breakdown)

This is one of the most searched questions about the CAC, and the honest answer is that the figure depends on entity type, and pricing has moved more than once in the last two years. Below is the clearest breakdown available from current sources, with the caveat that Nigerian government fees change without much notice, so always confirm the live figure on the CAC portal before paying.

Entity Type	Typical CAC Government Fee	Realistic Total With Agent
Business Name	Around ₦10,000 to ₦15,000, plus a small name search fee	₦15,000 to ₦35,000
Private Limited Company (up to ₦1 million share capital)	From around ₦40,000, rising with declared share capital	₦50,000 to ₦100,000+
Company with foreign shareholding (₦100 million minimum capital)	Stamp duty alone runs around ₦750,000 at 0.75% of nominal share capital, plus filing fees	Varies widely, confirm with a professional
Incorporated Trustees (NGOs, churches, associations)	₦150,000 to ₦300,000 in CAC fees	Plus mandatory newspaper publication costs

A note on a discrepancy worth flagging directly: sources published in 2026 disagree on the exact business name fee. Several place it at ₦10,000 to ₦11,000, in line with the figure the CAC and SMEDAN themselves have quoted when describing what the free SME registration programme waives. At least one source citing the CAC’s own fee schedule states that business name registration rose to ₦20,000, effective 1 October 2026. We have not been able to independently confirm the post-October figure against the live CAC fee schedule at the time of writing, so treat any number here as a strong estimate and verify against the portal before you pay.

Registration timelines vary by entity type. A business name typically clears in 24 to 72 hours after payment. A private limited company usually takes 3 to 14 working days with correct documents. Incorporated trustees take the longest, often 6 to 8 weeks, because CAMA requires a 28-day public notice in newspapers before the CAC will proceed.

How to Register a Business With CAC

Company and business name registration in Nigeria is done online, not at a physical CAC office. The general steps are:

• Create an account on the CAC’s registration portal and reserve your proposed business or company name
• Wait for name approval, which checks the name is not already taken or restricted
• Complete the relevant registration form for your entity type and upload the required documents (valid ID, passport photograph, and, for companies, details of directors and shareholders)
• Pay the applicable statutory fee through the portal’s payment gateway
• Download your certificate and registration documents once CAC approves the filing

State CAC offices still exist across Nigeria, but they now mainly handle document collection, complaints, and signature verification rather than registration itself, since that moved fully online.

CAC SME Free Registration Nigeria: The SMEDAN Partnership

This is one of the biggest CAC-related stories in Nigeria right now, and it is where a large share of current search traffic on this topic is coming from.

In September 2025, the Corporate Affairs Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, to deliver free business name registration to 250,000 nano, micro, and small enterprises across all 36 states and the FCT. Under the deal, CAC waives the statutory registration fee entirely, while SMEDAN handles mobilising, profiling, and issuing unique identification numbers to eligible businesses.

The programme moved from MOU to an active government initiative in 2026. President Bola Tinubu formally approved the rollout during the 8th National MSME Awards at the State House in Abuja, describing it as part of a broader push to bring informal Nigerian businesses into the formal economy. Government reporting has put the cost of covering the statutory fees for all 250,000 businesses at roughly ₦3 billion, funded by the Federal Government.

Who qualifies: the programme targets nano, micro, and small enterprises still operating informally. It is not aimed at established limited companies or larger SMEs already registered.

How to apply: eligible business owners apply through SMEDAN’s official portal at portal.smedan.gov.ng, not directly through the CAC site. Registration has run on a first-come, first-served basis, so slots have filled as applications came in rather than staying open indefinitely.

Why it matters beyond the free fee: the bigger long-term value for most applicants is getting into SMEDAN’s formal MSME database. Government agencies, development finance institutions, and lenders regularly pull from that database when selecting beneficiaries for grants and low-interest loan schemes, in the same way banks lean on a CAC certificate to confirm a business is real.

A practical warning worth repeating to readers: because this is a free, high-demand government programme, it has attracted scam pages asking for payment to secure a slot. The only legitimate route is the official SMEDAN portal, and neither SMEDAN nor CAC charges an applicant a fee for a slot that is explicitly described as free.

CAC Delisting of Dormant Companies in Nigeria: What the List Means

The second major CAC story driving search traffic is the ongoing delisting, sometimes called striking off, of dormant companies from the register.

Under Section 692 of CAMA 2020, the CAC has the power to strike off any company it has reasonable cause to believe is not carrying on business, most commonly because it has not filed annual returns for ten straight years. This is not a one-off event. The CAC has run several rounds of it:

• A December 2023 notice flagged 91,843 companies for potential delisting
• In July 2024, CAC gave over 90,000 dormant companies a 90-day grace period to file outstanding returns
• By November 2024, the commission had gone ahead and delisted 80,428 companies that never responded to the grace period
• In July 2025, CAC published a fresh notice targeting roughly 100,000 additional dormant companies, most incorporated between 2002 and 2006, again with a 90-day grace period

The scale of this problem is significant. CAC’s own leadership has previously stated that a large majority of companies on Nigeria’s register, described publicly as approaching 90 percent, are dormant and simply cluttering the database rather than operating. The delisting drive is part of a broader clean-up tied to anti-money-laundering standards and beneficial ownership transparency, not a random enforcement action.

Where to find the list: the CAC publishes the names of affected companies as a downloadable file, historically as an Excel or CSV sheet, on its official notices page at cac.gov.ng rather than as a static PDF with a permanent link. Because a new batch is published with each fresh round of delisting, there is no single fixed cac delisting dormant companies nigeria pdf that stays current. The safest way to check whether a specific company is on the current list is to search the company name directly on the CAC public search portal or check the latest notice published on cac.gov.ng, since the file linked to each announcement changes with every new batch.

What happens if a company is delisted: a struck-off company is legally treated as dissolved from the date the delisting is published. It becomes unlawful for that entity to continue trading under its old registration. Restoring a delisted company is not automatic. It requires an order of the Federal High Court, which is a formal legal process, not a portal request.

How to avoid delisting: the fix is straightforward for a company that is genuinely still active. File all outstanding annual returns, and where the CAC notice specifies it, send an activation email to activation@cac.gov.ng before the 90-day window closes. Businesses that intend to stay dormant on purpose, holding a name in reserve for future use, are still expected to keep annual returns current or risk being struck off regardless of intent.

The CAC Website and Online Services

The CAC’s main site is cac.gov.ng, which carries the commission’s public notices, delisting announcements, board and leadership information, and general guidance. Actual registration and post-incorporation filings run through a separate registration portal rather than the main informational site.

Through its online systems, the CAC also maintains a public company search, where anyone can verify whether a business name or company is genuinely registered, which is a useful due-diligence step before signing a contract with an unfamiliar Nigerian company. It also hosts the Persons with Significant Control register, Nigeria’s open beneficial ownership database, which any member of the public can search.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Dealing With the CAC

• Assuming a business name registration creates a separate legal entity. It does not. Only a limited company does.
• Paying an agent well above the CAC’s own fee without knowing what portion is the statutory fee versus the agent’s service charge
• Letting a registered company go quiet for years without filing annual returns, which is the exact pattern that leads to delisting
• Applying to the wrong portal for the SMEDAN free registration programme. It runs through SMEDAN’s portal, not a direct CAC application
• Treating a name reservation as a finished registration. A reserved name still has to go through full registration before the business is legally recognised

Frequently Asked Questions

What does CAC mean in Nigeria?
CAC stands for Corporate Affairs Commission, the federal government agency that registers and regulates companies, business names, and incorporated trustees in Nigeria under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA 2020.

How much is CAC registration in Nigeria in 2026?
A business name typically costs around ₦10,000 to ₦15,000 in official CAC fees, sometimes cited higher depending on the fee schedule in effect at the time. A private limited company starts from roughly ₦40,000 and rises with declared share capital. Agent or professional fees are usually added on top of the government fee. Always confirm the current figure on the CAC portal, since fees have changed more than once in recent years.

What is the CAC SME free registration programme?
It is a joint CAC and SMEDAN initiative offering free business name registration to 250,000 nano, micro, and small Nigerian enterprises, with the Federal Government covering the statutory fees. Eligible business owners apply through SMEDAN’s portal, not directly through CAC.

What does CAC delisting dormant companies in Nigeria mean?
It refers to the CAC’s legal power under CAMA 2020 to strike off companies that have not filed annual returns for ten years or more. Affected companies get a 90-day grace period to regularise their filings before being struck off and legally treated as dissolved.

How do I check if my company is on the CAC delisting list?
Search your company name on the CAC’s public company search tool, or review the latest delisting notice published on cac.gov.ng, since the affected-companies file is refreshed with each new round rather than kept as one permanent document.

Final Word

The CAC sits at the centre of nearly every formal business decision made in Nigeria, from a first-time trader registering a business name to a foreign investor structuring a Nigerian subsidiary. The two developments driving search interest right now, the SMEDAN free registration push for 250,000 MSMEs and the continued delisting of dormant companies, are really two sides of the same policy goal: pulling more real, active businesses into the formal register while clearing out the ones that exist only on paper.

For anyone unsure how a specific situation applies, whether that is qualifying for the free SME programme, contesting a delisting notice, or choosing the right entity type before registering, speaking with a Nigerian corporate lawyer before filing anything with the CAC is the safest way to avoid costly mistakes.

Last Updated on: July 28th 2026