You can Now Register a Company in Nigeria Within 48 Hours

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the agency overseeing the registration of businesses in Nigeria, has said it will expedite the registration of new companies in line with the government’s plan to entrench its ‘ease of doing business’ initiative.

Before now, the registration process was marred by varied bottlenecks. Customers would go through lawyers and other third party agents approved by the CAC before they could get approval while they were charged exorbitant cumulative registration fees.

Worse still, the system was structured in a way that made it difficult and frustrating for customers to boycott the agents and process the registration themselves – it could take several months before they could get approval for their business, and that is if the registration succeeds in the first place.

According to the CAC, the unnecessary bureaucracy is now in the past. The newly adopted online registration processing will now make it possible to get a business name approved within 24 hours and register a company successfully in 48 hours. But it may take up to five days to complete other post-incorporation services that require manual processing.

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The CAC Registrar-General Registrar, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, gave this assurance at a recent press briefing in Abuja.

He said, “The Corporate Affairs Commission was committed to amongst others register companies in 48 hours, approve names same day and ensure 5-day completion for other post-incorporation services not available electronically.”

Abubakar said the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the Commission to review and adjust the way it conducts business. He, however, assured that the registration processes will get even easier post-COVID-19, pointing that the CAC plans to automate the whole process such that customers would not have to visit its office before submitting some documents – meaning 100 percent online registration.