- The CAC has warned businesses that fail to file annual returns they could lose their registered business name
- Filing annual returns is simpler than many entrepreneurs think, and the process can be completed in a few steps
- Here are simple steps on how to file your annual returns on CAC portal to avoid unnecessary problems when applying for loans, grants, contracts, or attracting investors
Imagine waking up to discover that the business name you've spent years promoting has been marked for delisting.
The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has repeatedly warned businesses that fail to meet their filing obligations that they risk being removed from its register.
Avoiding that headache is much easier than most Nigerian entrepreneurs think.
What is CAC annual return?
Every business name, company, or NGO registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is legally required to file something called an "annual return" every single year.
If you don't file for a certain number of consecutive years, CAC assumes your business is dead. So they strike it off the register and your business name becomes available for someone else to register.
Filing annual returns has nothing to do with whether you made money or not.
CAC doesn't care about your profit, but they care about your paperwork. And skipping it doesn't just risk delisting, it can also attract penalty fees that stack up the longer you ignore it.
How to file your annual return
1. Know your type of registration: Are you a Business Name (BN), a company (Limited by shares, e.g. LTD), or an NGO/Incorporated Trustee? The process and required documents differ slightly for each
2. Get your documents ready: Typically this includes your CAC registration certificate details, your RC or BN number, and basic details of your business activities for the filing year.
3. Head to the CAC portal: CAC has moved a lot of this online, so you can usually file through their official portal instead of queuing at their office.
4. Pay the required fee: There's a filing fee attached, and it's usually way cheaper than the cost of re-registering a whole new business from scratch.
5. Get your confirmation: Once it goes through, keep that confirmation somewhere safe. It's like your business's "still alive" certificate.
If you have registered years ago and never filed your annual returns, the CAC has provisions for businesses that have defaulted.
In many cases, you can still file your outstanding annual returns and pay accumulated fees to bring your business back into good standing — before it gets struck off.
The window to fix this doesn't stay open forever though. Once CAC completes a delisting exercise, getting your name back can mean starting the registration process all over again, and this time, there's no guarantee your business name will still be available.
Your business name is more than a name. It's your brand equity, your bank documentation, your government contract eligibility, your everything. Don't let paperwork be the reason someone else builds on top of what you started.
File your annual returns. Today, if you can.
CAC to offer free registration for 3,500 small businesses nationwide
Meanwhile, TheRadar earlier reported that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) had unveiled a nationwide initiative to register 3,500 small businesses free of charge across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).Africans & Diaspora
The commission’s Registrar-General, Hussaini Magaji, explained that the programme is intended to ease the financial burden of business formalisation for micro and small enterprises while motivating more entrepreneurs to operate within the formal sector.