5 Easy Steps to Register Business Name in Nigeria; Get Availability Code

You might have been asking questions like, ‘How much does it cost to register business name in Nigeria? Or ‘How can I get my availability code?’ And so on. But, stay calm as I will walk you through the complete steps in getting your business name registered in Nigeria and also, how to get your availability code to complete your business name registration.

If you are launching your business or company in Nigeria soon, one of the most important things you should take care of is registering your business or company with the Corporate Affairs Commission also known as CAC.

Gone are those days you must visit the CAC office before you can register a business name in Nigeria. But now, due to technology and its advancement, Nigeria’s CAC has made it possible for us to register our business name online at any convenient time and place with our laptop or smartphone and, everything will be completed without any issue….. Thanks to technology!

Although, I have published a blog post about how you can register your business name with CAC in Nigeria using Offline or Online method.

But a few days ago, a reader stumbled on the post through google search engine but after reading, she said it’s not clear to her which I decided to make clear through this blog post that focuses only on how you can register your business name or company in Nigeria with CAC without visiting any outlets.

RECOMMENDED: How to Start A Restaurant Business in Nigeria from Scratch

About Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC

CAC, an acronym for Corporate Affairs Commission was founded in 1990. It’s in charge of regulating the formation and management of companies in Nigeria.

So in this blog post, I will teach you the easiest method of registering your business name or company with the corporate affairs commission using the online method and also, how to get your approval through your own special availability code.

Let start!

How to Register Business Name in Nigeria (Get Availability Code)

We are going to discuss this in different parts for easy understanding. But make sure you have your ATM card with you because you are going to pay for this business name registration.

PART A – How to Create An Account on CAC Website

We are just going to create an account on CAC’s official website to kickstart your business name registration

Just follow the steps below:

• Go to http://www.services.cac.gov.ng/signup to create an account
• Fill in the necessary details and make sure you use your legal name as it appears on your National I.D card or any Nigeria’s government-issued card.
• After filling your details, click on the ‘Register‘ button

Immediately, a verification link will be sent to your email address as you have earlier filled in, verify and login to your dashboard.

PART B: How to Reserve a Business Name for Registration in Nigeria

Because many people register different business names with CAC daily, you need to be smart if you don’t want your preferred business name to be registered by someone else before you do.

So, the CAC gives you the opportunity to reserve that preferred business name for 60 days. It’s even a ‘must’ to reserve your business name before you can finally register it in Nigeria.

How can I reserve my business name with CAC?

The steps below answers:

• Login to your verified account or go to http://www.services.cac.gov.ng/login or http://www.services.cac.gov.ng/dashboard
• You will see ‘Reserve a Name‘ in bold text, under it you will see a call-to-action link ‘here‘, click on it.
• After clicking on that, you are going to be directed to a new page where you will reserve your business name.

But, note these steps in ‘Reserve a Name’ page:

• Name & Type: Choose ‘Business Name‘ and enter the business name you wish to Register. Here, you will have to provide two names if in case one is taken, the other might be ready for you.
  i.e, you can choose like: (1) MyCompany Global Ventures (2) MyCompany Global Resources
• Objective: Under ‘Reason for Availability Search‘, choose ‘New Incorporation‘ and choose your business category under ‘Nature of Business‘.

But you may be asking…

What to Choose Under “Nature of Business”?

If you’re running a restaurant business, simply click on the drop-down and choose a very suitable category of the business there.

But, if you are going to run more than one business like selling clothes, running a private school, selling cars, wines, running a digital marketing firm, the printing of recharge cards, etc… I will advise you to choose ‘General Contracts’ under the nature of the business.

And this is exactly what I did because General Contracts indicate every business you may be engaged in.

Choosing ‘General Contracts’ during business name registration means that you are going to be running more than one business under a single registered business name. And this will save you from wasting money on registering another business name in the future.

• Presenter Details: Here, you are going to input your details again including your means of identification either through National I.D card, PVC, Birth Certificate, Driver’s Licence.
• Preview: You will be giving an opportunity to confirm all your details including your chosen business name, address, names, email, phone number, etc.
  If the details are correct, click on the ‘Proceed to Payment’ button.
• Payment: You will have to pay for the name reservation with your ATM card.

How much is Business Name Reservation with Nigeria’s CAC

Note, this costs N500 apart from the transaction fees. N600 was debited from my client’s though while N661.44 was deducted from my debit card.

After payment, a receipt of your payment will be sent to you.

Since you have paid the N500 for the business name reservation and your payment has been confirmed, the next thing is to confirm if your business name is approved by CAC for registration.

PART C: How to Know If Your Business Name is Approved By CAC.

The steps below will teach you how to check your business name approval status on the CAC Website:

===> Go to: http://services.cac.gov.ng/login
===> login with your username and password
===> Click on the “Name Search” tab
===> Click on the “My Reservation History” tab

• You will see your approval status under the ‘My Reservation History’ tab.

If your business name is lucky to be approved successfully, a big congratulations to you. Now, let proceed to complete the registration.

But, before completing your business name registration on CAC Website, you will need to get your availability code.

What is the Availability Code?

Availability Code is a special number that will be given to you to complete your business name registration in Nigeria with the Corporate Affairs Commission’s website.

Without this code, it’s quite impossible to fully register a business name.

PART D: How to Get Your Availability Code for CAC’s Business Name Registration

Note that the availability code is on the approval note which you will have to download from the CAC official website.

Now, let do it;

Simply follow the steps in PART C first and after that, you seeing your business name which has been approved, proceed the step below:

===> Click on ‘Action button‘
===> Then click on ‘View Payment History’
===> Immediately, a page will appear telling you to save a ‘PDF’ file. Save or download the file to desktop on your PC or save in a folder you can easily access on your phone
===> After saving the PDF file, open it and you will see a ‘serial number’. If you see it, then you have seen your availability code!

Finally, let complete your business name registration on the CAC portal.

PART E: Completing Business Name Registration Using the Availability Code

Since you have gotten your availability code, let finalize everything now.

===> Go to https://services.cac.gov.ng/company-registration/application
===> Enter your availability code
===> If it’s correct, complete your business name registration and that’s all.

But wait, you may be asking…..

How Much Does It Cost To Register A Business Name in Nigeria?

The cost to register a business name in Nigeria with the cooperate affairs commission (CAC) varies because it depends on the type of business.

In this article, I won’t write down all the fees here but note that the reserving form fee is N500
The business name registration form fee starts from N10,000. And if you’re going to register a company, be ready to pay the high cost because there are differences between an enterprise and a company.

But currently, there is a 50% discount which means you’re going to pay N5,000 only for business name registration in Nigeria. (UPDATED: This offer is expire and you will need to pay full amount)

Note: If you are a big company, expect to pay more than this. Click here for a full list of the various price.

CONCLUSION: How to Register Business Name in Nigeria

I have aligned the complete steps on how you can register a business name in Nigeria with CAC and how you can get your availability code for completing the registration.

I hope this will help you as it helped my client got her business name registered without any issue.

If you think that the process is too tedious or complicated for you, you can hire me to get it registered for you.

Please don’t forget to share this helpful article with your friends and comment below. Thanks!!!