How to Register a Business in Nigeria

How to register a business in Nigeria: choose the legal route

Start with the applicant and the activity, then select the CAC filing. A business name used by an individual proprietor or ordinary partnership is different from a company incorporated with its own legal personality. The cheaper or simpler filing is useful only if it fits who will sign contracts, own assets and bear liabilities.

CAC publishes separate business-name registration instructions and company instructions. Its business-name route is available directly to individual proprietors without a legal practitioner, chartered accountant or chartered secretary. Choose the legal form before reserving a name; a reservation is an intermediate approval, not the final registration document.

For an overseas corporate applicant, CAMA 2020, section 78 generally requires a separately incorporated Nigerian entity before carrying on business, subject to statutory exemptions. Do not substitute a branch label or an overseas registry extract for that analysis. Free-zone projects and regulated financial activities need their own route assessment.

Resolve foreign equity and capital before the CAC application

Foreign participation adds an investment and operating-permission track; it should be resolved before the share structure is entered. A CAC certificate does not replace the approvals needed for a foreign-owned business to operate. The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission investor FAQ describes NIPC registration for incorporated enterprises with foreign participation, generally after incorporation and before commencement. It also identifies the Ministry of Interior Business Permit and activity-specific approvals.

Foreign ownership is possible in many activities, but check the exact sector, prohibited activities and any ownership conditions before committing funds. Do not assume that a Nigerian partner is universally required, or that wholly foreign ownership is available for every activity. Obtain an activity-specific answer rather than relying on a broad ownership statement.

Separate the ordinary CAMA private-company minimum issued capital of ₦100,000 from foreign-entry conditions. The Ministry of Interior handbook, general rules and Business Permit requirements states a ₦100 million capital requirement for the foreign-participation Business Permit route. Its general rules refer to paid-up capital, while its document note refers to issued or paid-up capital. Confirm the accepted capital basis, funding evidence and current CAC treatment before filing; these are not interchangeable concepts or professional fees.

Also check governance eligibility: CAMA excludes a company with a foreign member from its small-company category, and companies outside that category require at least two directors. A small budget does not itself qualify a foreign-invested company for small-company concessions. Sector capital rules may add further conditions.

Assemble an evidence file that matches the selected route

Prepare one consistent record of people, ownership, address and activity before entering the portal. The company application framework in CAMA sections 36–40 and 119 covers the registered office, initial shareholdings, proposed directors, constitutional documents and compliance statement; significant-control disclosures are a separate ownership obligation. Use the portal’s current fields and document prompts for the actual filing.

For a joint venture, the Interior handbook includes a joint-venture agreement; it also lists a Certificate of Capital Importation, bank evidence and premises documents within its permit requirements. Ask the receiving authority which items apply to a newly formed applicant. An existing-company tax clearance document should not be treated as something every brand-new business can already produce.

Build an attachment index with three columns: document, issuing body and application it supports. This avoids submitting an investor-permit pack as though it were the basic business-name filing. Confirm any certification, translation or validity requirements with the receiving authority; there is no reason to buy a generic notarisation bundle without knowing what that authority accepts.

Complete the CAC filing and retain the actual proof

Use the official CAC route, pay against its assessment, and close the task only when registration evidence is available. CAC’s company registration instructions describe name reservation, digital pre-registration, supporting documents, filing fees and statutory stamp duty, followed by an electronic certificate and certified extract. The official Company Registration Portal requires an account to register or manage a business name or company.

1. Create or use an authorised portal account. Keep ownership of the contact email and retain a record of who is permitted to submit on the applicant’s behalf.
2. Check the proposed name and obtain the appropriate reservation. If a restricted expression or regulatory implication needs consent, resolve it before using the name in contracts or branding.
3. Complete the selected filing with the agreed people, address, activities and ownership details. Compare the final preview with the attachment index before submitting.
4. Pay the itemised official assessment through the indicated channel. Save the assessment, payment reference and receipt together; a payment receipt proves payment rather than incorporation.
5. Respond to any specific query and download the approved certificate and certified extract. Check the legal name, number and recorded particulars before sending them to a bank or counterparty.

Keep separate folders for the submitted version, correspondence and approved version. If a document is corrected, replace the version being circulated so counterparties do not use conflicting registration details. HSJGlobal’s explanation of what registration changes for a company can help distinguish formation evidence from later operational readiness.

Plan preparation, CAC review and any query response separately from investment, premises or sector approvals. This guide gives no guaranteed processing duration: a reservation, payment or pending submission is not evidence that the registration has been approved.

Budget from the gazetted fee components and the portal assessment

Budget CAC charges separately from stamp duty, capital funding and operating approvals. The CAC fee gazette published in May 2025 lists the following registration components. Checked on 3 November 2026, these are dated gazetted amounts in Nigerian naira, not an all-in quote or an HSJGlobal price.

For example, ₦1 million share capital gives a gazetted CAC component of ₦1,000 + ₦10,000 = ₦11,000. That is a limited illustration, not a recommended capital amount for foreign participation. The separate capital requirement is not money paid to CAC as an incorporation fee.

CAC’s general fee download still displays older figures, so reconcile the newer gazette with the actual portal assessment before payment. Query a discrepancy with CAC rather than combining figures from different schedules. Add separately assessed stamp duty, payment-channel charges where applicable, authorised professional work, address costs and triggered investment or operating approvals. Do not infer tax-inclusive pricing from the CAC figures.

Retrieve and verify the current Tax ID

Verify the business’s tax identity after CAC approval, then complete the tax-service registrations relevant to its activities. The current Nigeria Revenue Service and Joint Revenue Board Tax ID portal describes a jointly issued 13-digit Tax ID and supports retrieval using CAC details for registered organisations. Use the corporate identity for a company rather than substituting a founder’s personal identifier.

In 2026, use the current Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) terminology and official services when acting on older guides that still name the predecessor authority. Keep the Tax ID confirmation with the CAC evidence, and resolve a name or registration-number mismatch before relying on it for banking or statutory filings.

A Tax ID identifies the taxpayer; it does not settle which tax returns, employer obligations or transaction taxes apply. Map those obligations to the actual business, employees and operating state with the relevant revenue authority. This is a separate task from obtaining a CAC certificate, and a zero trading period should not be assumed to remove every filing obligation.

Check the activity, site and foreign-personnel permissions

Do an operating-permission review for the real activity and address before launch. A domestic proprietor, a foreign-owned consulting company and a regulated product importer can have very different requirements despite all having CAC records. Use the activity description submitted to CAC as the starting point, then add how and where the business will actually operate.

• Foreign equity: complete the applicable NIPC registration and Interior Business Permit track. Employing foreign personnel adds an expatriate-quota and immigration assessment; being a shareholder does not itself authorise work.
• Regulated activity or products: obtain the relevant regulator’s approvals before the regulated operation. NIPC identifies financial services and food/drug activities as examples involving CBN and NAFDAC respectively; incorporation alone does not satisfy them.
• Premises: confirm the requirements for the actual state and local area, including any activity-related building, fire, health or environmental approvals. Keep each issuing body and completion document distinct.

For a concrete state-level example, the Lagos business-premises procedure describes a separate premises-receipt process using the business’s CAC number. Its illustrated interface is older, so confirm the present route and assessment with Lagos before acting. A premises receipt is neither the incorporation certificate nor a substitute for a sector approval; Lagos’s process should not be applied as a nationwide rule.

Turn the registration into a Nigeria launch file

To register a business in Nigeria with a usable outcome, close the entity, tax and operating tracks with evidence rather than a single “done” message. Choose the route based on who will own and operate the business, and do not authorise launch while an approval that the activity requires remains outstanding.

Create a launch register showing each obligation, responsible person, issuing authority, completion document and next review date. Include CAC annual returns and changes to registered particulars; maintain tax records and the renewals or reporting attached to permits. CAC’s portal currently distinguishes business-name annual-return arrangements by registration cohort, so confirm the workflow for the entity’s own registration date.

For a domestic proprietor, the immediate next step is a consistent business-name pack and a location/activity review. For foreign participation, settle capital and permit eligibility first, then align the CAC and investor-permit submissions. For a regulated operation, let the regulator’s prerequisites determine when to commit to premises, equipment and staffing.

HSJGlobal’s global company formation and registration services page describes its broader formation scope. A consultation can begin with the proposed Nigerian activity, ownership chart, operating address and list of unresolved approvals, so the requested support is tied to the actual filing and launch decisions.