How to register a public (limited) company in Nigeria

A public company is one who is able to sell its shares to the public and may have its shares quoted on the stock exchange. A minimum of 2 persons is required by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to register this type of company and the share capital must be a minimum of N500,000.

Register your public company by following the simple steps below;

• Choose 2 names for the proposed company in order of preference
• Log on to the CAC portal at www.cac.gov.ng
• Conduct a search for availability of the name on the CA.C website
• Reserve the available name by paying reservation fees after which a notice of approval will be sent by the commission
• Complete the online pre-registration form (CAC 1.1) on the portal
• Pay filing and stamp duties fees
• Prepare the following documents to be scanned on to the portal

1. Names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of Shareholders, stating the shareholding percentage for each shareholder
2. Name, address, phone number and email address of Company Secretary (must be a professional)
3. Name, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of Directors (minimum of two directors. Note that to appoint a minor, i.e. a person below 18 years of age as a director, there has to be a minimum of two adult directors).
4. Proposed Company address.
5. Proposed share capital of the company (minimum of N500, 000)
6. Means of identification for the directors, shareholders and Company Secretary i.e a copy of international passport, permanent voters card, national id card or driver’s license
7. Objects of the Company, i.e business the Company proposes to operate
8. Memorandum and Articles of association of the Company

• Submit the original copies of the scanned documents at the nearest CAC office.

Note that you need to engage the services of an accredited agent for the registration as only an accredited agent can register with the CAC.

Best regards,

Team 618 Bees

The information in this blog post (“post”) is provided for general informational purposes only, no information contained in this post should be construed as legal advise, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information included in, or accessible through this post without seeking the appropriate legal or professional advise from the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer.

This post is protected by intellectual property law and regulations. It may however be shared using appropriate sharing tools provided that our authorship is always acknowledged and this Disclaimer Notice attached.