What’s the need to register a business name online in Nigeria? Lots of people have been asking this question for a while now even when the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have made it mandatory for private or public business owners in Nigeria to register their business.
Mind you, you don’t just go ahead trying to register any business you set up, because there are limitations. What I mean is that there are certain types of businesses or companies you can be able to register in Nigeria, and they’re as follows; Private Limited Company (LTD), Public Limited Company (PLC), Limited Companies by Guarantee, and as well Unlimited Companies.
So, if you don’t operate on any of the listed businesses/companies, you have nothing to worry about as regards registration.
Now, you want to know the importance and the need to register a business name online in Nigeria. Okay right, I’m going to be providing you with different reasons why you should embrace the policy.
First and foremost, we’re in Nigeria, and whether you like it or not, there are people out there tarnishing the image of your business by creating distrust amongst existing and prospective customers.
My uncle is someone that deals in original phone accessories like chargers, earpieces, power banks, etc. Now, we all know that what he sells is original and customers will not be disappointed buying these things from him.
But the problem is that he has a competitor selling what I tag as “Inferior” accessories. It’s inferior because, to prove to someone that my uncle’s product is different from his, I had to bypass my uncle and buy an iPhone charger for a customer. It was supposed to be a 6-month warranty normally, but the fan offers a 3-month warranty rather.
Luckily for my guy, it wasn’t up to 2 months and he came back with a complaint of a sudden malfunction of the charger.
Now, the whole scenario here is that the man is a direct business neighbor of my uncle, so it’ll be possible for people to criticize the whole business line for selling inferior products.
And just like Nathaniel said; “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Well, that’s a general perception, so it takes trust to win over the customers, because of what one or two persons have caused.
So what point I’m I trying to prove here? Getting your business registered with CAC online gives your customers that level of confidence in your products.
This is because the validity of your business will be tested, and as you know, it doesn’t come for free. So why put customers’ trust at risk when you know the process you got to take to get your business name registered?
Another key importance is that registering your business name gives you a level of protection someone that doesn’t register can’t enjoy. Of course, most businesses land into trouble in one way or the other.
If you don’t get your business name registered, if there’s any default, your goods will be seized and there’s no way for you to get them back. A registered business protects you from such.importin
Talking about importing goods from a foreign country…People travel out on business trips to ship down goods to Nigeria, but it’s certainly what you can’t do as long your business is not registered. Why is this so? Cos if you want to apply for a Visa for the sake of traveling out on a business trip, it will not be possible if that business is not registered.
Not only that, you can easily collect loans from banks and other financial institutions if your business name is registered. And if you ever default on paying back the business loan you collected, there’s no way can the bank seize your business property, but they’ll rather seize the asset of the business.
Requirements to Register a Business Name Online in Nigeria
Before you can be able to register a business name online in Nigeria, you should have the required documents available.
These documents will be approved by CAC, and they’re as follows:
- Your Birth Certificate or Age Declaration
- Details like Full Name, DOB, Gender, Nationality, Phone number, Email Address, Username & Password, and Residential Address will also be required.
- National Identification Number (NIN). Whether it’s the temporal slip or the permanent card, what’s needed is the 11-digit number.
- International Passport
- Driver’s License
- Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC)
- Passport Photograph
- Your Business Name
- The Registration Fee
Steps to Get Your Business Name Registered
To register a business name online in Nigeria, you’ll have to log into the CAC portal. But first, you’ll have to create an account.
- Go to pre.cac.gov.ng/register/new via your web browser
- You have to fill in the required information. Look up and see the details I listed.
- Once you’re done with the form, you can then click on “Register”
- A verification link will be sent to you via the email address you provided while filling out the form.
- Open your email and click on the verification link
- Next thing is to log in to your account and view your dashboard.
- Now, you’ve successfully logged in to your CAC account, the next thing is to fill out the CAC business registration form. Don’t be confused, this is the process where you’ll have to register the business name. It’s different from creating an account.
- Depending on the type of business you’re registering, you’ll then be required to pay the stipulated fee.
- Upload all your business documents.
- Once you’re done with that, you can now click “Submit” to submit the business documents online
Also Read: How to Choose a Good Business Name for Your Business
List of CAC Registration Fees
I know a man who owns a big bread factory, and to register it, he got a lawyer. The problem with these old men is that whenever they hear anything about ‘online’ they think it’s not genuine.
He was told that he can easily do it online which would have saved him the cost, but because people like him don’t fully believe in this new tech world, he went against that idea and approached a lawyer.
Now, at the end of the day, he registered his bread factory business, but the lawyer charged him N5000 (cost of registration and his charges).
Now, this outrageous fee has made me equally research the fees charged for respective businesses, which is what I’m still going to detail for you here. Now you can see what he could have done with a fee that will never pass 20,000, he ended up spending more than double.
There are fee differentials for different kinds of businesses/companies, which I’ve broken down for you below:
- To register a Private or Public Company with a share capital between N1m and N500m, you’ll be charged the sum of N5000 for every N1 million shares of the company.
- Registration of a Private or Public Company with more than N500 million share capital, you’ll be charged N7,500 for every N1 million shares of the company.
- Registration of a Private or Public Company with a share capital of N1 million or less will be charged the sum of N10,000.
- Registration of a Private or Public Company for the first N1 million registered capital or less will be charged N20,000.
- Whereas registration for a Private or Public Company without a registered capital also goes for N20,000.
Business Reservation Name
There’s also what is called the “Name Reservation Fee”. Paying a fee for this means that CAC will retain your business name with the state and then reserve it within the period of your registration.
It’s very important because no other business owner registering under CAC in Nigeria can be able to use your business name during their registration. And also, your CAC Reservation Name will be reserved on the portal and ensures it remains original.
The fee required to pay for your business reservation name is N500, which excludes other bank charges.
Now, just like I told you, CAC has the right to reserve people’s business names. So the business name you wish to register might have been chosen by another person and registered on the portal. The business name code will have to be approved by CAC showing that you’ve successfully reserved your name with the agency.
And most importantly, you have to make sure that proper research is been made as regards your locality’s business entity requirements and rules.
So, to find out, you have to search so to find out if your business name is available on the portal.
- To do this, you have to click here
- Once the coast is clear, you can now navigate to your dashboard and click on “Reserve a Name”
- This will now take you to a new page where you’ll have to fill out the required form.
- When you’re done filling out the form, you can now make the reserve name payment online.
- Then go to “E-services” and select “Name Reservation”
- After that, the business name and the code will be provided for you, subject to approval by CAC.
You’ll have to upload certain documents (in PDF format); the CAC registration form, evidence of residential address, approval note or availability printout, Memorandum and Articles of Association (MAA), receipt of stamp duties payment, Directors and Shareholders identification letter, consent and particulars of the first directors of the company, statement of compliance by a legal officer, and then Certificate of Incorporation of the Company Secretary.
- To get the approval note or availability printout, you need to click on “Action” via the name that’s been reserved for you, once you’ve logged in > then click on “Download of Name Approval” > now, once the document has been downloaded in your device, you can therefore click to open it. If it’s not in PDF format, you can convert it. But it’s mainly downloaded in PDF format.
- Now that you’re done with your registration and uploading of required documents, the next thing is for you to monitor/follow up on your application till when the certificate is ready.
- You can do this by clicking on “Status” via your profile. The status of your application can either be showing ‘Not Submitted’, ‘Submitted’, ‘Pending Approval’, or ‘Approved’ as it proceeds.
- When you’re application has been ‘Approved’, you can now visit the CAC office with the original copy of your printed approval document. This is the document you’ll submit there so that your CAC certificate can be issued to you.
Note:
To approve your application can take between 2-3 working days or even more than that.
The validity period for the name reservation takes up to 60 days (2 months), with which you have to fill in the business name registration within.
You can get your business name registration certificate (CAC Certificate) within 6-7 working days after the registration.
Again, have you ever tried opening a corporate account for your business? If you’ve not, then you must have heard it somewhere or from someone. Now, you should know you can’t be able to open a corporate account without first registering your business name.
What’s next?
There is the Tax Identification Number (TIN), which is a unique digit code issued by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) after your business/company has been incorporated.
The major aim of this number is to identify an individual or company as a registered taxpayer in Nigeria. And given that your registered business is legally due to pay taxes as stipulated by the law both in Nigeria and other countries, you’re required to have a Tax Identification Number.
So, once a certificate of incorporation has been generated for you, a TIN will be issued and sent to you via your email address from the FIRS / JTB via the Integrated Stamp Duty System (ISDS) portal.
With this, you don’t need to start afresh applying for a Tax Identification Number. But if you don’t get your business name registered, you’ll have to go through that process, which also requires you to provide the Certificate of Incorporation of your company if you’re applying on behalf of your business.
Conclusion
Getting your business name registered might seem like a long protocol for some people. And for some people to go through different steps that are associated with it, they don’t even want to give it a second thought.
I know that most people don’t like much stress to get things done. They always want to do things at their convenient place and time. So, you should be lucky that the path has been cleared for you to run so many things online.
So, for you to be able to register a business online Nigeria should be one of those things you should breathe a sigh of relief to.
No more visiting the CAC office just to get it done, or hiring a lawyer, agent, chartered accountant, etc to help you go through that, which you’ll end up paying a good amount of money to.
You don’t have a reason for not having your business registered as things have been made easier for you.
With just an affordable fee, you can build confidence in your business, gain customers’ trust, and enjoy a level of security you’ve not experienced before.
So, it‘s something you need to consider and get done as the appropriate steps have been provided for you here.