One important step towards launching your own business is to register your business name with the appropriate regulatory body. Any business in Nigeria must first register their name with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to be recognized as legitimate and trusted by their clients.
Registering your business name in Nigeria isn’t as difficult as before, when you’ll have to go through a rigorous process that could take days. The Corporate and Affairs Commission is solely responsible for the registration of business names in Nigeria. The requirements are pretty easy, and you can even start the process online and upload your documents.
What Are the Requirements for Registering A Business Name in Nigeria?
Before you can register for a business name to get your license, there are some crucial documents that will be required of you, and they include:
- Statutory fees and stamp duty.
- Objects of the company.
- Email address and the phone number of the company.
- Directors and shareholders full names, residential addresses, occupations, and dates of birth.
- Name reservation approval note from the Corporate Affairs Commission.
- The address of the company
- Incorporate a certificate and company resolution in the event that another company will be a shareholder in the proposed company.
- Documents for identification of the shareholders and directors, such as national identity cards, international passports, and driver’s licenses.
These are all the documents that will be needed for you to register your business name. Make sure that everything is ready when you want to register your business name.
How Much Does It Cost to Register a Business Name in Nigeria?
The cost of registering your business name in Nigeria varies depending on the size and type of the company.
- Private company registration that is above N500 million in authorized share capital costs about N7,500 for every one million shares of the company.
- The registration of a company that doesn’t have any share capital costs about N20,000.
- The registration of a private company with a share capital of more than one million naira and upward costs about N5,000 for every one million naira of shares in the company.
- Public company registration for the first one million or lower costs about N20,000.
- The registration of a private company with an authorized share capital of one million naira or less costs about N10,000.
The above-mentioned prices are for each sector of the company.
How to Register a Business Name in Nigeria
If you want to register your business name in Nigeria with the CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission), then you can follow the guide below:
Step 1: Select a Business Name and Check if the Name is Available
Choosing a name for your business can be a difficult task sometimes, and your business name needs to be identified with a unique brand name. It is essential that you choose a name that is relevant to your business.
Make sure that you do a quick search on the internet for the names that you choose and also have a backup plan.
This is to make sure that you have at least picked the names that are not in use. There are also name-generation platforms such as Namelix that you can use to help you find your business name.
Step 2: Finish your Pre-registration Form to Register Your Business Name
Previously, to reserve your business name, it would take you about a few days before you get a result. But now, it only takes about a day if you submit your request before 5 p.m., and it costs about N500.
After the name reservation, you can then proceed to register your business name. You can use an online registration portal, and you will have to finish a pre-registration form.
Step 3: Pay for a Filing Fee
After paying the filing fee, you will get a receipt of payment. You can make the payment on the official website or by visiting the physical bank. The type of company that you want to register will determine how much you will pay for the registration of your business name.
Step 4: Prepare Your Documents For Upload
One of the steps to registering your business name is to prepare a list of documents. You need to get a signed copy of the pre-registration documents, and then you upload a scanned copy to the official website for processing. Here are the documents that are required for business registration:
- Filling out the fee receipt
- Application form
- And means of identification for the owner of the business
The above-mentioned are the necessary documents that you must have, and you are to upload them on the CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission) official website.
Step 5: Submit the Original Copies of Your Documents
This is one of the steps towards registering your business name. You will be required to submit authentic copies of the documents that were uploaded in the previous step to the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Afterwards, you will then be granted the Certified True Copies of the document as well as your certificate.
And there you have it. The steps above are exactly how the process works for registering your business name in Nigeria.
