How To Register Your Business Name With Corporate Affairs Commission
This article is about revealing to you simple steps you can take to register your business name with corporate affairs commission in less than 21 days.
Proper registration is one of the important things many business owners neglect to their detriment. This is because they think it is not important and some others do think it is important but often assume it’s a difficult task.
Why register with CAC?
1. People often feel more comfortable paying for services and products into a corporate account with the name of an organization than paying into the individual account. And this may make you lose serious amount of money!
2. Many organization or agencies will not take you serious if your company is not registered.
3. If you have a business idea and you go ahead and register the business name, even if you spend 2 years perfecting the plan and raising capital, those 2 years from when the business was registered can count for you as years of experience.
About CAC
The corporate affairs commission (CAC) was established by the companies and allied matters act, which was propagated in 1990 to act as a regulatory body in the formation and management of companies in Nigeria. They have offices all over Nigeria. This article has included the addresses of their offices in different locations in Nigeria, so it will be easy for you to locate.
Registering a business name
If you want to register a business name, you can do it in 2 ways:
1. Engage the service of a lawyer. You will have to pay the lawyer about N10, 000. The issue is the next time you want to register another business name, you will have to pay the lawyer another N10, 000
2. The second way to get your business name registered is to do it yourself. Just walk into any branch of the corporate affairs commission and you will get your business registered.
The issue is that if you don’t know the secrets of going about the registration, you can spend months trying to get your business name registered, and that wouldn’t be cool, the aim of this article is to show you how to avoid that.
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Now remember that this process is to get your business name registered, not a limited liability company or an NGO. For those of NGO and limited liability company, that is a different procedure altogether.
Are you ready? Let’s start
Once you are ready the first thing you should do is to go to their office nearest to you, don’t worry about location, I’ve added an all-inclusive list of 19 office location of CAC around the country.
- walk in to the nearest branch to you and ask for name reservation form. It cost just N200 only. They will give you a receipt form. One the form, you be asked to fill in a few details like…
- Your name
- Your Address
- Your Desired Business Names
- A space to fill the type of business you want to Register (Choose Enterprises/Business Name)
You’ll be required to choose two business names. The reason is that if one name is not available, they can reserve the other one for you. If none is available, you have to do it all over again, you be charged the same amount again and wait for the result.
How long does it take to reserve name with CAC?
It will have to take almost two weeks before the results are returned, but a times it’s as fast as one week or 10 days but It generally two weeks. So imagine if the name you choose is not available, you’ll have to go over again, times over and over again, that’s why most people take a long time to sort this issue out which in not cool.
So how will you prevent that from happening to you?
Simple! All you have to do is to choose a name no one else would have chosen. Am not going to baby you here, you have to get creative about it, don’t just choose a name, if you choose just any name, I bet you someone has registered it!
Don’t dare registering names like:
- Emeka Enterprises
- Charity Ventures
- God’s will Enterprises
- Garba and Sons Ventures
- Global Resource services
If you choose names like those, there is a high probability that they have already been taken by someone else and as a business man, you don’t have to waste time experimenting on news names all over again. Just make sure before you go to CAC you have creatively chosen a name.
Then you will have to wait till the result comes out. For this there is no short-cut, you’ll have to wait. And get ready so when the result comes out, you will be prepared to register immediately.
Things you will need:
- 2 passport photographs
- The details of your partner (remember you cannot register alone, add someone…)
- The partners photographs
- Your address ( if you don’t have an office address relax, just use your home address)
- Telephone number (you can use your mobile number)
- Local government area and a few other requirements.
Why must you prepare ahead of time?
Many entrepreneurs will fold their hands while 2 weeks passes but I advise you to work while you wait. Start gathering the materials you need. Know that your reservation is just for a number of days, you have to register properly before the “grace” period expires and someone else can take up your proposed name. Your goal should be to register your business name as quick as possible. When name reservation results come out what you should do is to start studying the new documents they are provided with to fill. If you prepare early, you will get your registration done once the results are out.
What is your business?
You must be able to define your business because CAC requires that you state what your business is all about. In the past you could state as much as twenty. Nowadays the rules have changed; the maximum number of business you can list is three. They want to know what your business is about before they can register the name.
There are some kinds of already laid down business items that are allowed for a business name. It’s left for you to find the one that best describes what your business is all about.
Here are the ones allowed by CAC:
− Advertising/Public Relations
− Agricultural Produce
− Agricultural Tools, Machines and Allied Products
− Alternative Medical Practice
− Aluminium Manufacturing
− Architects/Town Planners
− Auto Dealers
− Auto Mechanics and Rewiring Services
− Auto Spare Parts Dealers
− Bakery and Fast Foods
− Beauty Industry (Salon, Pedi, Manic, Barbing ETC)
− Bookshops/Stationery Stores
− Car Washing Services
− Carpentry/Woodworks
− Chattered Secretaries
− Commission Agents
− Computer Training, Sales and Services
− Cosmetic Manufacturers/Dealers
− Day Care Centre
− Dealers and Distributors
− Electrical/Electronic Equipment’s Dealers
− Entertainment Industry/Events Managers
− Estate Agency/Maintenance
− Fashion Designers
− Fish Farming/Fisheries
− Food Products and Processing
− General Construction (Build/Civil Engr. Contractors)
− General Contracts
− General merchandise/Trading
− General Tax Consultants
− Guidance and Counselling
− Gymnastics and Stress Management
− Horticulture/Gardening/Landscaping/Equipment Services
− Hospitals/Clinics
− Hotel/Hospitality Industry
− Human Resource Manager
− Import/Export of Goods and Services
− Industrial Chemical Supply and Service
− Interior/Exterior Decorations
− Internet Service Providers (Cyber Cafe)
− Jewellers
− Land and Quantity Surveyors
− Laundry/Dry Cleaning Services
− Livestock Management
− Management Consultants
− Maternity Home
− Mechanics/Welding
− Medical and Pharm. Products (Manufacturing, Sales and Services)
− Medical Services/Laboratory
− Others
− Patent Medicine Store/Chemist
− Petroleum Products Sales/Distribution
− Pharmaceutical Manufacture/Services
− Photography/Photo Equipment
− Plastic Manufacturing
− Poultry Farming
− Printing/Publishing
− Restaurant/Catering Services
− Road Transportation
− Schools (Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools)
− Supermarkets/Departmental Stores
− Textile Manufacturers/Distributors
− Travel Agents
− Veterinary Clinic/Services
− Water Works/Borehole Drillers
Most businesses will fall under one of these, if not, just use General Merchandise.
Once your name reservation is out, speak to any officer there and they will give you a file and some documents to fill. In some CAC branches, they would have given you this form and file right from the first day you applied for name reservation.
You can just fill the form right there with your name, phone number, and address including LGA, partners details, and passport photographs. Make sure you staple it and write your name behind the passports and sign on them.
After you’re done filling the documents, you can now submit it for verification.
Depending on the CAC branch you go to, the verification process time will vary. It is basically done within an hour so you can wait for it. You may want to confirm how the procedure is going, maximum is a day.
If you fill the form properly your verification will be smooth and quick.
Once you pass the verification process, you be required to pay your registration fees. I guess is costs N4, 000. May be it will cost more currently but I bet you it won’t be up to N10, 000.
After payment they will issue your receipt you will submit your files and documents, because they will return it after the verification. You’ll be asked to come back in about a week for your certificate!
When you get back to CAC you will be asked to sign then they will give you your certificate as well as other documents you can keep. Those documents are very important because you will need them when you want to open your company’s bank account and some other purposes. That is all.
Now that you know how to register a business name, you become a CAC Business name registration consultant and make money registering Business names for others!
19 CAC office Locations in Nigeria
LAGOS
IKEJA: Elephant Cement House, Assbifi Road, Alausa Ikeja
MARINA: 9TH Floor, UBA House, No. 57 Marina-Lagos Island.
RIVERS
112 Aba Road, P/Harcourt, River State
OYO
Premium House, Jericho Road, Eleyele-Ibadan, Oyo State.
EDO
55, Akpakava Street, Benin City, Edo State.
ENUGU
1 Temple Avenue, Off Opara Avenue, Enugu(Behind First Bank).
IMO
7/9 Wetheral Road, Owerri, Imo State.
DELTA
Along Anwai/Illah Okpanam Road, Opp. Ministry Of Works, P.M.B 95095, Asaba-Delta
State.
BENUE
37 Barracks Road, Makurdi, Benue State.
KANO
52, Unity Road, Kano.
KADUNA
22, Bida Road, National Bank Building, Kaduna.
PLATEAU
21, Murtala Mohammed Way, Jos, Plateau State.
SOKOTO
No. 3, Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki Road, Sokoto.
BORNO
No. 25, Sir Kashim Ibrahim Way, Chari House, Maiduguri, Borno State.
ADAMAWA
Galadima, Aminu Way, Jimeta-Yola, Adamawa State.
BAUCHI
Ground Floor, Nicon House, No. 26, Ahmed Abdulkadir Road, Bauchi State.
AKWA IBOM
131, Udo Umana Road, Uyo- Akwa Ibom State.
CROSS RIVER
No. 10, Calabar Road, Okoi Arikpo House, 3RD Floor, M/M Way By Central Bank.
ONDO
87, Alagbaka Quarters, Akure.
KWARA
Adama Sa'adu's House, Ahmadu Bello Way, Ilorin, Kwara State.Subscribe to RAY'S VILLE by Email
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