The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is deploying technology to weed out dormant companies, enable 24-hour business registration and protect data of registered companies and their promoters. One year in the saddle, CAC’s Registrar-General Husain Ishaya Magaji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in this interview with Assistant Editor, NDUKA CHIEJINA, sheds some light on the Commission’s activities and future plans.
What is the strategic vision of CAC under your leadership?
As you know, I’ve been in office for over a year now. I am the fifth Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). My strategic vision for the CAC is to build upon its existing mission and ensure we have an innovative, open and trustworthy Registry. Specifically, my goal is to maximise the potential of our registers for the benefit of the Nigerian economy. It’s important to note that the CAC oversees more than just the companies’ register. We also manage a separate register for Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and foundations. These two registers form the core of the CAC’s mandate. My aim is to ensure that these registers are fully utilised to support economic growth and development in Nigeria.
How is the CAC contributing to Nigeria’s ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Index?
Our primary mandate as a Registry is to facilitate business operations in Nigeria by ensuring that all businesses operating here are legitimate. For a business to be legitimate, it must be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. At CAC, we have the exclusive authority for business registration, and we are committed to delivering this service efficiently and conveniently. Registration is now fully digital. It’s no longer paper-based. From start to finish, the process is conducted online. Wherever you are in the world, you can access our website and complete your business registration with ease. This is part of our effort to simplify the process and promote ease of doing business in Nigeria.
In terms of fees, we only charge minimal amounts to cover operational costs like cloud storage and service maintenance. For example, a name availability search costs just N500. By comparison, with Morocco, a similar search costs $200, and in the UK, it is significantly more expensive. Additionally, registering an MSME (Micro, Small, or Medium Enterprise) costs only N10,000. These rates have remained unchanged for over a decade, to ensure affordability and encourage business growth. Unfortunately, intermediaries sometimes charge additional fees when registering on behalf of clients, which can create the impression of higher costs. However, the actual statutory fees collected by the CAC remain as low as N500 and N10,000. This affordability is a deliberate policy to support ease of doing business in Nigeria.
Do you intend to increase these rates going forward?
Yes, there are compelling reasons to review our fees. For instance, we operate offices in all 36 states of the federation. In Abuja, we even have two offices—our headquarters and the FCT office—bringing the total to about 38 offices nationwide. These offices are classified under ‘Band A’ by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, meaning our electricity costs have tripled or quadrupled. Many of our offices also rely on diesel generators. Additionally, our operations are now entirely internet-based, requiring significant investment in cloud services and IT infrastructure. If we decide to review our fees, it will be done carefully and in alignment with the government’s ease of doing business policy, especially for MSMEs. Any fee adjustments will focus on post-registration activities rather than pre-registration, ensuring that small businesses are not adversely affected. Instead, we would consider adjusting fees for larger companies to better reflect the cost of providing services while still supporting small businesses and fostering economic growth.
The CAC recently moved its services online. How successful has this transition been and what challenges have you faced?
Business registration in Nigeria dates back to around 1912, but the Corporate Affairs Commission was only established in 1991. However, we didn’t automate our activities until around 2021. At that point, we introduced the Company Registration Portal (CRP), which allows customers to register their businesses online. Since then, the process has become fully digitised and many people now benefit from the ease of registration.
The main challenge we face now stems from changes in laws and regulations. Our activities are programmed to comply with the provisions of the law, so any amendments require adjustments to the portal’s structure. Additionally, when the CRP was first developed and deployed, certain post-registration activities were not included.
Post-registration activities refer to tasks like updating directors, changing registered addresses, or increasing share capital after initial registration. When I assumed office, I identified over 101 post-registration activities outlined in the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 that were not yet integrated into the system. Addressing this gap is a priority for me, and we are currently redesigning the system to accommodate these activities. Its work in progress, but we are committed to ensuring all processes are fully online.
How is CAC facilitating the registration and growth of start-ups and small businesses? And what steps are being taken to make companies’ information more accessible to the public?
The CAC portal has revolutionised business registration in Nigeria, particularly for MSMEs. In fact, I doubt if any other government agency does more to support MSMEs than the CAC. For example, agencies like Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), tasked with training small businesses and facilitating access to loans, rely on us because no financial institution grants loans to unregistered businesses. To make this process easier, we provide discounted registration rates for MSMEs through government agencies, including SMEDAN. The Companies and Allied Matters Act also acknowledges the importance of MSMEs by granting their representatives a seat on the CAC Board.
We’ve also partnered with universities. For instance, the University of Abuja now requires all students to register their businesses with the CAC before graduation, fostering graduate entrepreneurship. We provide these students with a 50 per cent discount, reducing registration fees from N10,000 to N5,000. Similarly, we’ve set up a dedicated desk for NYSC members and offer discounted rates to ensure they’re equipped for entrepreneurial ventures after service. Our interventions for MSMEs extend beyond universities and NYSC. Many state governments also collaborate with us to offer subsidised or free business registration.
Additionally, we’ve mandated that financial technology (fintech) operators and Point-of-Sale (PoS) agents register their businesses with the CAC, as required by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulations for agent banking. To simplify this process, we’ve partnered with platforms like MoneyPoint, enabling PoS operators to register directly through their applications without the need to visit our portal. This initiative makes registration more accessible for MSMEs across Nigeria.
How quickly do they get their certificates?
Business registration with the CAC is now instantaneous. Once a small business completes its registration, the certificate is sent to their email immediately. We’ve also developed Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow fintech platforms like Opay to integrate directly with our system. Through this API integration, users can check name availability and complete registrations without engaging third parties, or lawyers. For bulk registrations, we’ve created a dedicated portal separate from the main Company Registration Portal (CRP) to streamline processes for MSMEs. This digitisation has brought millions of previously unregstered businesses into the system, improving transparency and security. For instance, the data captured during registration now helps to combat crimes such as kidnapping, where ransom payments were previously facilitated through unregistered PoS operators. By requiring businesses to register, the CAC contributes not only to economic growth but also to national security.
So, when you said four million, in the last one year that you came in, how long?
I prefer not to provide exact figures because these numbers evolve rapidly. However, I can share that this initiative, which is unprecedented, was introduced under my leadership. Before now, there was no regulatory framework ensuring that operators like PoS agents were properly registered. Upon examining the provisions in the CAMA and CBN regulations, I championed the policy that mandates registration for these operators.
Currently, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) records, we have over 30 million PoS terminals in Nigeria. However, this only represents less than five per cent of businesses potential market. Through this initiative, we have effectively brought millions of operators into the tax net, making a significant contribution to the country’s revenue base.
Then, how has the implementation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act impacted business registration in Nigeria?
The new CAMA has introduced several progressive changes to the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria. Previously, it was mandatory to have at least two directors to establish a company; now, one person can register a company. Also, the minimum share capital has been reduced from N1 million to N100,000, significantly lowering the entry barrier for businesses. Another innovation is the introduction of registered partnerships and limited liability partnerships, which align with international best practices. These frameworks provide flexible options for entrepreneurs to formalise their ventures without necessarily forming companies. These changes ensure that the business environment is more inclusive and accessible to a broader spectrum of entrepreneurs.
What other reforms are contained in the CAMA?
In addition to these reforms, CAMA also addresses business rescue and insolvency practices. For instance, businesses facing technical insolvency now have mechanisms to recover rather than liquidate. This is particularly relevant for companies experiencing temporary challenges. Starting next year, CAC will roll out a comprehensive training programme for stakeholders, focusing on understanding and utilising these provisions. This is part of our broader effort to ensure businesses thrive and contribute to the economy rather than fail prematurely.
How many business rescue, insolvency and bankruptcy issues are you treating currently, given the state of the economy?
There’s been some exaggeration regarding the number of businesses leaving Nigeria. While there are applications for voluntary winding up, the numbers are negligible. Most of these cases result from shifts in business focus rather than systemic economic challenges. For example, Nokia transitioned from being a phone manufacturer to producing vehicle tyres. Similarly, many businesses adapt to technological advancements or realign with new opportunities. It’s a natural evolution rather than a failure of the system.
Are there plans to decentralise CAC offices further to improve accessibility to rural communities?
Our approach at CAC is to leverage technology to streamline operations. The law currently mandates a CAC office in each state, but our focus is to minimise physical office reliance while enhancing online service delivery. All applications, regardless of location, are processed centrally in Abuja. We maintain state offices primarily for customer support and compliance enforcement, as CAMA now emphasises obligations beyond registration. With improvement in internet penetration, we aim to ensure that even rural areas with network access can utilise our services. Our goal is to provide seamless, technology-driven access to CAC services nationwide, reducing the dependency on physical office visits and focusing more on digital transformation.
Despite digitisation, some users are still complaining about delays in company registration and approval. Why is this still an issue and what are you doing to resolve it?
It’s straightforward: when you reserve a business name, the process takes a maximum of four hours. Currently, registering a business in Nigeria takes 24 hours. However, we aim to shorten this to just one hour, and we’re embedding Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our system to achieve this. Currently, members of staff manually check and verify business name requests for duplicates or classification issues. With limited staff and one centralised CAC office, processing capacity is around 10,000 requests daily. When industries like fintech flooded the system with thousands of applications due to compliance deadlines, delays were inevitable. To address this, we are programming the system with AI, enabling it to process large volumes of applications—100,000 or even a million—within minutes, something that would take humans a month. AI will automate name verification, ensuring quicker responses. We also encounter issues when applications have errors or involve sensitive names, like those linked to controversial or banned entities, requiring manual review. Nevertheless, barring such queries or incomplete submissions, business registration is completed within 24 hours. Additionally, we’ve upgraded our system significantly. When I assumed office, the portal’s capacity was just three terabytes. Today, it exceeds 12 terabytes, reflecting the influx of new registrations and compliance with filing annual returns. This optimisation is crucial for sustaining the demand we now handle.
What is CAC doing to address the rise of shell companies being used for fraud, money laundering, or tax evasion?
This is one area where I can confidently say we’ve made remarkable progress. Since I assumed office on October 16, 2023, CAC has carried out unprecedented deregistration of dormant companies. For instance, we deregistered over 100,000 companies in December 2023, another 100,000 in February 2024, and a further 100,000 recently. These dormant companies had remained inactive for years without filing annual returns, and some were being used for illegal activities. By law, companies that are inactive for over ten years can be deregistered. Even those inactive for just two years, if deemed non-compliant, can be deregistered. Our system is integrated with FIRS (Federal Inland Revenue Service), security agencies, embassies, and banks. Once a company is marked inactive, its operations—such as bank transactions or embassy dealings—are effectively frozen. This integration ensures that only active, compliant businesses operate within Nigeria’s economy. This bold step was made possible by the political will of the President and the supervising minister, who gave us the autonomy to act decisively. We have not onboarded historical business records from as far back as 1912 onto our portal and continue to identify and deregister non-compliant entities. We are yet to onboard our historical files. Rather, that is our challenge, struggling to onboard our historical files in order to clean the system from dormant companies.
With the shift to digital processing, what measures are in place to prevent data breaches and protect sensitive corporate information?
We operate within Nigeria’s data privacy laws and exercise caution when sharing data. Organisations frequently request validation access to our records, but we carefully evaluate these requests to ensure compliance with the law. Protecting the confidentiality and integrity of our records is paramount. For now, we’ve not granted validation access to any organisation, as we prioritise legal compliance and data security.
Have you ever faced political interference in your work? If so, how did you manage the situation?
No, I cannot say I have never witnessed any form of political interference. However, what I have observed is not outright interference, but rather overlaps in oversight responsibilities. For instance, as the Corporate Affairs Commission, we are mandated not only to register companies, but also to regulate and investigate their activities. Occasionally, we receive complaints and petitions from organisations, particularly notable associations like IPMAN (Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria), or ALGON (Association of Local Governments of Nigeria). These often involve disputes over ownership or management. While we are investigating such complaints internally, the same complainants sometimes escalate the matter by petitioning the National Assembly. The National Assembly, in turn, might form committees to conduct their own independent investigations and communicate their findings to us. While this may fall under their oversight functions, it sometimes feels like interference, as it overlaps with our mandate and professional expertise. Ideally, our trained professionals should be allowed to complete their investigations without external influence. That said, beyond this, I have not experienced any direct political interference.
So, on a scale, how would you rate your independence?
CAC’s independence, I claim the maximum, we are fully 100 per cent independent.
What are you doing to motivate CAC’s members of staff to deliver on its mandate?
This is one area where I believe I have performed exceptionally well. When I assumed office, I found the morale of the CAC members of staff at an all-time low. Everything I have achieved at the Commission is due to the dedication and hard work of these brilliant professionals. For instance, I inherited a backlog of pending promotions dating back to 2021 and 2022—three years of stagnation for deserving staff. I made it a priority to clear this backlog, and today, every pending promotion has been addressed through transparent and merit-based processes. Workers now have a clear path for career progression, and those who participated in promotion exams have successfully advanced in rank. In addition, we streamlined gratuity payments for retirees. Previously, retirees would wait endlessly for their entitlements. Under my leadership, every staff member who exits the system has their file processed and approved promptly. Today, there are no outstanding claims for gratuities in the CAC. On salaries, we ensure they are paid on time—by the 24th or 25th of every month, without fail. We also honour all allowances for staff. Another unprecedented achievement is our focus on staff training and development. Over the past year, we sent a record number of employees for international training programs in Morocco, China (with multiple batches visiting different cities), Rwanda (Kigali), and Malaysia. These opportunities allowed our staff to interface with company registries in other countries and build their capacity. Locally, over 550 staff members have benefited from training programs this year alone. Through these efforts, we have restored a sense of belonging and pride among the staff. Their morale is now at an all-time high, and their renewed commitment has been instrumental in achieving the milestones of the Commission. They are truly the engine driving our success.
