Register your Nigerian business directly with the government
The Corporate Affairs Commission runs Nigeria's company registry, and its Intelligent Company Registration Portal (iCRP) lets you register a business name or incorporate a limited company yourself, with no agent in between. On CAC's published schedule a business name costs 10,000 naira to register, and so does a private company limited by shares with issued share capital of 1 million naira or less; above that you pay 5,000 naira for every further 1 million up to 500 million. Reserving the name first costs 1,000 naira, or 5,000 where it contains a restricted word. Companies also owe stamp duty of 0.75% of authorised share capital, charged separately, which on a well-capitalised company is far larger than the filing fee. Business names are approved automatically the moment payment clears. Companies, incorporated trustees and partnerships still go through a human review.
Use when
You want to register at the statutory fee with no agent markup, and you are willing to work through a government portal and handle any query it raises yourself. For a straightforward business name this is now close to instant, which makes paying someone else hard to justify.
Skip when
You are incorporating with foreign shareholders, registering an incorporated trustee, or otherwise filing something where a rejected application costs you more in time than an agent charges. Those still get a manual review and the queries can be opaque. Sidebrief, Norebase or an accredited CAC agent will carry those end to end.
Checked 5 Oct 2026. Registration lives at icrp.cac.gov.ng; the older pre.cac.gov.ng and post.cac.gov.ng addresses redirect there. Payment runs through Remita, and two-factor authentication has been mandatory on every login since April 2026. Name reservation and business name registration are both automated and approve as soon as payment clears, with AI suggestions when your first choice is taken. Limited companies, incorporated trustees and partnerships still get a human review: CAC's published timeline is 24 working hours for a company or business name, 48 for a company limited by guarantee or an incorporated trustee, and 4 working hours for a name availability check. Budget stamp duty separately, at 0.75% of authorised share capital: 7,500 naira on a 1 million naira company, and 750,000 on the 100 million minimum a company with foreign shareholders has to carry. Business names do not pay it. A TIN now arrives automatically when incorporation is approved, through CAC's integration with the Nigeria Revenue Service, so it is no longer a separate errand. One caveat on every figure here: the schedule of fees CAC publishes is the January 2021 document, unrevised, and the October 2025 fee review covered post-registration services rather than registration. Confirm the total the portal quotes you before you pay.
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