One of the most important steps in doing business is registering your business organization. In Nigeria, you can do this by registering a company or a business name. There is also a third kind or organization called incorporated trustees or registered trustees but that is not an organization for business.
In this article, we will give a step-by-step guide on how to register a company (limited by shares).
However, we advise that you HIRE A LAWYER to help you register your business. This is the safest, fastest and most reliable way to register your company.
REQUIREMENTS TO SET UP A COMPANY
- A company must have a minimum of 2 members, and a maximum of 50 members
- Founding members must not be – under the age of 18 years old (unless at least 2 other members are over the age of 18), of unsound mind, an undischarged bankrupt, or disqualified by CAMA from being a Director
- The current minimum share capital of a company to be registered in Nigeria is N10, 000
HOW TO REGISTER YOUR COMPANY
- Public Search: At this stage you want to find out if the name which you want to register your company with is available and not already in use.
- There are 2 ways you can do a search. You can do a free public search on the CAC website. The website has a public search tool here which you may use to do an initial free search – http://publicsearch.cac.gov.ng/comsearch/
- If you conduct this search and finally decide on what name you want to use and confirm that it is not in use by anyone else, you can then proceed to officially conduct a search using the CAC online portal.
- The search costs N500 (Five hundred naira) and if your name is available you can reserve it for 60 days.
- After 60 days, if you fail to proceed with your registration, the name automatically becomes available to anybody that wants to use it
- TIP: Be unique with your name selection or it will keep getting bounced as denied.
NAMES TO AVOID
- Names that contain the words “Chamber of Commerce”, “Federal”, “National”, “Regional”, “State”, “Government”, “Municipal” or “Chartered”, “Co‐operative” or the words “Building Society”; or “Group” or “Holding”
- Names that in the opinion of the Commission is capable of misleading as to the nature or extent of its activities or is undesirable, offensive or otherwise contrary to public policy;
- Names that in the opinion of the Commission would violate any existing trademark or business name registered in Nigeria unless the consent of the owner of the trademark or business name has been obtained.
STEP 2
REGISTER THE DETAILS OF THE SHAREHOLDERS & OBJECTS OF THE COMPANY
- Under Nigerian law, a private company must have a minimum of 2 members, and can only have a maximum of 50 members.
- The founding members must not be – under the age of 18 years old (unless at least 2 other members are over the age of 18), of unsound mind, an undischarged bankrupt, or disqualified by CAMA from being a Director
- The information which you will need to present include – the name of the shareholders & directors, residential address, occupation, email address and mobile phone number, recognized identity document e.g. international passport, drivers license, national identity card
STEP 3
PREPARE THE DOCUMENTATION
- The documents required for the registration of a company include:
- Form CAC 1.1/BN
- Memorandum and Articles of Association
- Notice of registered address of the business
- List, particulars, and consent of the first Directors of the company
- Statement of compliance by legal practitioner
STEP 4
PAYMENT, SUBMISSION AND PICK UP
- Once you make the relevant payments online (the amount depends on the share capital of your company), you can upload all the documents and your submission is finalized.
- After submission, the CAC will contact you if there are any queries. If there are no queries, the CAC will inform you once the registration is complete, and then you can go to their office to pick up your certificate of incorporation.
- If you want to find out more about the process for registration at the CAC, you may find out more on their website here – services@cac.gov.ng
