CAC Nigeria 2026: Meaning, Registration Fees, Free SME Signup and the Delisting List Explained

CAC registration, fees, and the delisting of dormant companies are three separate issues that keep getting searched together. This guide covers all three: what the CAC is and does, current registration costs, how to apply for free SME registration through SMEDAN, and how to check the delisting list.

What Does CAC Mean in Nigeria?

CAC stands for the Corporate Affairs Commission. It is the federal agency that registers and regulates every company, business name, and incorporated trustee (NGO, church, association) in Nigeria. If a business is legally recognised in Nigeria, it is because the CAC has it on record.

The CAC was created under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990 (CAMA), re-enacted as CAMA 2020, the law currently governing how companies are formed, run, and shut down. Before the CAC existed, business registration sat inside the Companies Registry at the old Federal Ministry of Commerce and Tourism.

In practical terms, the CAC turns an informal 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

CAMA 1990 created the CAC to take registration duties out of a government ministry and give Nigeria a dedicated, semi-autonomous registry, similar in concept to Companies House in the UK.

The law stayed largely unchanged for three decades until the National Assembly overhauled it with CAMA 2020, which modernised company law in ways that still shape registration today. The clearest example: a single person can now be sole shareholder and sole director of a private limited company, something the old law did not permit.

The CAC has also digitised its operations. Registration runs through an online portal rather than in-person paper filing, and the commission has moved into AI-assisted processing through what it calls its Intelligent Company Registration Portal, meant to cut turnaround times and manual errors.

What the CAC Actually Does

Beyond registration, the CAC carries a broad regulatory mandate under CAMA 2020:

• Registers business names, limited companies, and incorporated trustees
• Maintains Nigeria’s official company registry, the public database banks and investors use to verify a business
• Regulates post-incorporation changes: director changes, registered address, share capital, company name
• Monitors CAMA compliance, including yearly annual returns
• Manages winding-up and striking off of companies that stop operating or fail to comply
• Maintains the Persons with Significant Control (PSC) register, Nigeria’s open beneficial ownership database launched in May 2023 for anti-money-laundering compliance
• Accredits the lawyers, chartered accountants, and chartered secretaries authorised to file on clients’ behalf

This is why the CAC matters beyond the moment of registration. It is the agency businesses deal with every year through annual returns, and the one that can legally strike a company off the register if it goes quiet too long.

Types of Business Entities the CAC Registers

• Business Name: the cheapest, simplest option for sole proprietors and small partnerships. Does not create a legal entity separate from the owner.
• Private Limited Company (Ltd): the most common structure for startups. Under CAMA 2020, one person can be sole director and sole shareholder, with liability capped at share value.
• Public Limited Company (PLC): for larger businesses raising capital publicly or listing on the Nigerian Exchange.
• Company Limited by Guarantee: mainly for non-profits and professional bodies without 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. Companies with foreign shareholding must be capitalised at a minimum of ₦100 million, a figure foreign investors frequently underbudget for.

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

Fees have moved more than once in recent years, so check the live CAC portal before you pay.

On the conflicting numbers you will see online: CAC’s own statutory fee for business name registration has historically sat around ₦10,000, the figure SMEDAN and CAC quote when describing what the free SME programme waives. Several banking apps and registration-service platforms currently charge ₦19,000 to ₦25,000 or more, inclusive of processing, and some fee schedules reportedly moved the base filing fee to ₦20,000 in late 2026. That gap is mostly the difference between the pure statutory government fee and an all-in service price charged by a bank app or agent, not necessarily a fee increase. Confirm the live CAC portal fee before paying anyone.

Timelines: 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 6 to 8 weeks because CAMA requires a 28-day public notice in newspapers before CAC proceeds.

How to Register a Business With CAC

Registration is done online, not at a physical CAC office.

1. Create an account on the CAC registration portal and reserve your proposed name.
2. Wait for name approval, which checks the name is not already taken or restricted.
3. Complete the registration form for your entity type and upload documents (valid ID, passport photo, and for companies, director and shareholder details).
4. Pay the statutory fee through the portal’s payment gateway.
5. Download your certificate once CAC approves the filing.

State CAC offices still exist but now mainly handle document collection, complaints, and signature verification. Registration itself moved fully online.

CAC SME Free Registration Nigeria: The SMEDAN Partnership

In September 2025, CAC signed an MOU 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. CAC waives the statutory fee entirely; SMEDAN handles mobilising, profiling, and issuing unique identification numbers.

The programme moved from MOU to active rollout in 2026, formally approved by President Bola Tinubu at the 8th National MSME Awards in Abuja. Government reporting puts the cost of covering fees for all 250,000 businesses at roughly ₦3 billion, funded federally.

Who qualifies: nano, micro, and small enterprises still operating informally, not established limited companies or larger, already-registered SMEs.

How to apply:

1. Go to the official SMEDAN portal: portal.smedan.gov.ng/signup.
2. Create an account with your name, email, and password.
3. Complete your business profile: business name, address, sector, and your National Identity Number (NIN) for verification.
4. When asked if you already have a CAC number, select “No” to apply for the free registration.
5. Submit and download your SMEDAN Certificate, which contains your SMEDAN Unique Identification Number (SUIN).
6. You are automatically enrolled for free CAC business name registration; eligible applicants are contacted with next steps.

Slots run first-come, first-served, so registration fills as applications come in rather than staying open indefinitely.

Why it matters beyond the free fee: the bigger long-term value is getting into SMEDAN’s formal MSME database. Government agencies, development finance institutions, and lenders pull from that database when selecting beneficiaries for grants and low-interest loans. CAC registration is increasingly the entry ticket to schemes like the FGN MSME Intervention Fund and Bank of Industry facilities.

Scam warning: because this is free and high-demand, scam pages have appeared asking for payment to secure a slot. The only legitimate route is the official SMEDAN portal. Neither SMEDAN nor CAC charges a fee for something explicitly advertised as free.

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

Under Section 692 of CAMA 2020, CAC can 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, or has not disclosed Persons with Significant Control information. This has run in repeated phases:

• December 2023: 91,843 companies flagged for potential delisting
• July 2024: over 90,000 dormant companies given a 90-day grace period
• November 2024: 80,428 companies delisted after failing to respond
• July 2025: a fresh notice targeted roughly 100,000 additional dormant companies, most incorporated between 2002 and 2006
• February 2026: CAC disclosed it had struck off more than 400,000 companies in 2025 over inactivity and non-compliance
• July 2026 (Batch 6): CAC published notice of a sixth batch of roughly 100,000 companies, concentrated among businesses registered between 2006 and 2008, again with a 90-day compliance window and instructions to send evidence of compliance to CAC’s activation email

CAC leadership has previously said close to 90 percent of companies on Nigeria’s register are dormant. That is why this has become a recurring clean-up tied to anti-money-laundering standards and beneficial ownership transparency, not a one-off enforcement action.

Where to find the list: CAC publishes affected companies as a downloadable file, historically Excel or CSV, on its official notices page at cac.gov.ng, not as one static PDF with a permanent link. Because a new batch appears with each round, there is no single, permanently current cac delisting dormant companies nigeria pdf. The reliable way to check a specific company is to search it on CAC’s public company search portal or review the latest notice on cac.gov.ng.

What happens if a company is delisted: it is legally treated as dissolved from the date the delisting is published, and it becomes unlawful to continue trading under that registration. Restoration is not automatic. It requires an order of the Federal High Court.

How to avoid delisting: file all outstanding annual returns and, where the notice specifies, send an activation email to activation@cac.gov.ng before the 90-day window closes. Businesses that are intentionally dormant, holding a name in reserve, 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 public notices, delisting announcements, and general guidance. Registration and post-incorporation filings run through a separate registration portal.

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

Common Mistakes to Avoid 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 CAC’s own fee without knowing how much is the statutory fee versus the service charge.
• Letting a registered company go quiet for years without filing annual returns, the exact pattern that leads to delisting.
• Applying to the wrong portal for free SME registration. It runs through SMEDAN, not directly through CAC.
• Treating a name reservation as a finished registration. It still needs to go through full registration.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

How much is CAC registration in Nigeria in 2026? A business name costs around ₦10,000 to ₦11,000 in the pure statutory fee, though agent platforms and banking apps often charge ₦19,000 to ₦37,000 all-in. A private limited company starts from roughly ₦40,000 and rises with declared share capital. Confirm the live figure on the CAC portal.

What is the CAC SME free registration programme? A joint CAC-SMEDAN initiative offering free business name registration to 250,000 nano, micro, and small Nigerian enterprises, with the Federal Government covering statutory fees. Apply at portal.smedan.gov.ng, not directly through CAC.

What does CAC delisting of dormant companies mean? CAC’s legal power under Section 692 of CAMA 2020 to strike off companies that have not filed annual returns for 10 or more years. Affected companies get a 90-day grace period to regularise before being struck off and treated as dissolved. The most recent batch, covering roughly 100,000 companies registered 2006 to 2008, was published in July 2026.

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

Is there a downloadable CAC delisting dormant companies Nigeria PDF? Not a permanent one. CAC republishes a new list with every batch, so search your company name directly on the CAC portal instead of relying on an old PDF that may reflect a previous round.

Final Word

The CAC sits at the centre of nearly every formal business decision in Nigeria, from a first-time trader registering a business name to a foreign investor structuring a 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 now into a sixth batch, are two sides of the same policy goal: pulling active businesses into the formal register while clearing out the ones that exist only on paper.

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

Last Updated on: September 11, 2026