Registering a business name is one of the few regulatory processes in Nigeria you can complete yourself, in one sitting, without an agent. The portal is open to the public. The fees are published. The whole thing takes under an hour if your documents are in the right format before you begin.
Most people still pay someone two or three times the official cost to press the same buttons. Usually because nobody has written down what actually happens at each screen.
This guide walks the process in the order it happens, and flags the two places people lose time.
Who this is for: sole proprietors, freelancers and small traders registering their first business name. If you are setting up something with partners, employees or long-term assets, read Section 1 first, because a business name may not be the right vehicle for you.
1. Business Name or Limited Company?
Decide this before you spend anything, because the two are not interchangeable and switching later means registering again from scratch.
A business name is a registration, not a separate legal entity. You and the business are the same person in law. Your personal assets are exposed to business debts and claims. It suits sole traders, service providers and small operations where the owner is the business.
A limited company is a separate legal person with its own liability. It costs more and carries more filing obligations, but it protects the founder personally, it can take on shareholders and it is what most institutions expect when a business grows.
If your business will hold premises, employ staff, take on significant debt or operate in a licensed sector such as education or healthcare, register a limited company rather than a business name. Regulators in those sectors will usually require it, and you do not want to discover that after you have paid.
The rest of this guide covers business name registration.
2. What to Have Handy
Gather all of this before you open the portal. Most abandoned registrations happen because someone went looking for a passport photograph at the payment screen and lost the session.
Money. Budget roughly ₦22,100. That is ₦1,361.25 for name reservation and ₦20,661.25 for the registration fee, paid at two separate stages. Keep the card funded throughout.
Time. Allow an hour. You will probably need less.
An email address you can open immediately. The portal sends a verification link and every notification afterwards goes to that address.
A phone number.
The NIN of the proprietor.
Three documents saved as images, not PDFs. A valid means of identification, your signature and a passport photograph. The upload field rejects PDFs. Sign on clean white paper, photograph it in good light and crop it tight before you start.
Google Authenticator installed on your phone. The portal's two factor authentication is built around it specifically. Other authenticator apps will cause problems at login.
Two or three name options. See the next section.
Fees and portal behaviour change without announcement. Treat the figures above as a planning guide and confirm what the portal quotes you at the payment screen.
3. Choosing a Name That Will Actually Be Reserved
This is where most first attempts fail, and the reason is rarely explained on the portal itself.
A business name cannot be reserved on a bare word alone. It needs a qualifier attached, something that signals what kind of entity or activity sits behind the name.
Common qualifiers include Designs, Concepts, Enterprises, Ventures, Investments, Solicitors, Consulting and Global Services.
So not "Zaria". Instead "Zaria Concepts" or "Zaria Ventures".
Without a qualifier the system will not reserve the name, no matter how available it is. Have alternatives ready, because your first choice may already be taken.
Avoid names implying government backing, professional qualification you do not hold, or association with an established brand. The Commission rejects these and you lose the reservation fee.
4. Creating Your CAC Account
Go to the Companies Registration Portal at icrp.cac.gov.ng and register as a public user. This is the account type for individuals registering their own businesses, as opposed to an accredited agent account.
Follow the prompts exactly as they appear on screen. Do not skip optional fields or improvise where something is unclear.
A verification email arrives almost immediately. Click through it. If it has not appeared within a few minutes, check your spam folder before requesting another.
On first login the portal requires you to set a new password.
5. Setting Up Two Factor Authentication
Once your password is changed you will be prompted to register two factor authentication. This is mandatory and you cannot proceed without it.
Open Google Authenticator, add the account using the QR code or setup key the portal displays, then return to the portal and select continue. Enter the six digit code the app generates.
Set this up on a phone you will still have access to in a year. Recovering a CAC account after losing the authenticator is slow and involves support tickets.
6. Reserving the Name
Submit your chosen name with its qualifier and pay the reservation fee of ₦1,361.25.
If the name is available it is reserved to your account for 60 days. That window is your working time to complete registration before the reservation lapses and the fee is lost.
7. Completing the Registration
For a sole proprietorship, only the proprietor's details are required, and the proprietor is taken to be the person whose account it is. If you are registering your own business from your own account, there is nothing further to supply beyond your details and documents.
If you are registering on behalf of someone else, stop and think about this before you continue. The system ties the proprietor details to the account holder. You may need to select partnership instead, or have the actual owner create their own account and run the process themselves.
Getting the ownership structure wrong is not a formatting error. It determines who legally owns the business. Sort it out before you pay the registration fee, not after the certificate is issued.
Uploads. Identification, signature and passport photograph, all as images. This is the stage that catches people who did not prepare in Section 2.
8. Payment and Submission
Pay the registration fee of ₦20,661.25.
After submitting you receive a confirmation message advising that a response will follow within an hour. In practice approval often arrives considerably faster. A registration submitted with clean documents and no name conflict can be approved in around ten minutes.
If something is queried, the response comes by email to the address on your account, which is why Section 2 asks for an address you can actually open.
9. Generate Your TIN Before Downloading the Certificate
This is the single most important step on the page, and the portal does not warn you about it.
Once approval comes through, you will see options to download your documents. Do not download the certificate yet.
Select generate TIN first. Once the Taxpayer Identification Number has been generated, download the certificate from the TIN generated screen. The TIN then appears on the certificate itself.
Download the certificate before generating the TIN and you get a certificate with no TIN on it. Banks, procurement portals and regulators routinely ask for a certificate showing the TIN, and fixing it afterwards means going back into the portal for something that took one click to get right the first time.
10. What You Should Download and Keep
Three documents are available once approval and TIN generation are complete.
Payment receipt. Proof of the fees paid, needed for your records and useful at tax registration.
Certificate of registration. Your primary evidence of registration, showing the TIN if you followed Section 9.
Status report. The document that sets out the registered particulars, including the proprietor details and registered address. Most institutions asking for "your CAC documents" want this alongside the certificate.
Save all three somewhere you will find them again. You will be asked for them more often than you expect, usually at short notice.
11. What Happens After Registration
Registration is the beginning of your obligations, not the end of them.
Annual returns. Business names must file annual returns with the Commission. Falling behind puts the registration into default status, which surfaces when you try to open a bank account, bid for work or update your particulars. Check the current fee and filing window on the portal.
Tax registration. Your TIN is issued at registration, but you still need to register with the Nigeria Revenue Service and understand which taxes apply to your business and when they fall due.
Changes to particulars. Any change to the business address, the nature of business or the proprietor's details must be filed with the Commission. Doing it as it happens is far easier than reconstructing a history later.
Sector licences. Registration with the Commission does not authorise you to operate in a regulated sector. Education, healthcare, food production and financial services all require separate approvals from their own regulators.
When to Get Help
Do it yourself if you are a sole proprietor registering a straightforward business name under your own name and details. The process in this guide is genuinely manageable in an afternoon, and paying someone to do it is money better kept in the business.
Get professional help if ownership is shared, if the structure is not obvious, if you are choosing between a business name and a company for something that will grow, or if you are entering a licensed sector where registration is one step in a much longer compliance chain.
The expensive mistakes are structural, not procedural. Nobody gets hurt by filling in a form slowly. People get hurt by registering the wrong vehicle, in the wrong name, with the wrong person listed as owner.
Please note This guide is general information, correct as of the date shown. Requirements change, so confirm with the relevant regulator before you act. It is not a substitute for legal, tax or regulatory advice.