The Company Affairs Fee deregistered over 400,000 firms in 2025, citing extended inactivity and failure to fulfill statutory compliance necessities.
This was disclosed by the Registrar-Common of the fee, Mr Hussaini Magaji, throughout actions marking CAC’s thirty fifth anniversary in Abuja on Saturday.
The transfer kinds a part of efforts to wash up the nationwide firms register and strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s company regulatory framework.
What CAC mentioned
In keeping with Magaji, the mass deregistration was essential to take away inactive and non-compliant entities from the fee’s database and defend the integrity of the register.
- “In 2025 alone, the fee de-registered over 400,000 firms, in a bid to wash up its database from inactive and non-compliant entities,” he mentioned.
He added that the motion was aimed toward making certain transparency and credibility in Nigeria’s enterprise atmosphere.
On assist for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the CAC boss disclosed that the fee facilitated free enterprise registrations for 250,000 entrepreneurs in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Improvement Company of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
He described the initiative as a part of CAC’s intervention to cut back the price of enterprise formalisation and encourage small companies to function throughout the regulated economic system.
In keeping with him, the programme is aimed toward easing entry limitations for small companies and increasing participation within the formal sector.
Backstory
As a part of CAC’s broader effort to sanitise Nigeria’s company registry and be sure that solely lively and compliant entities stay within the system, it had earlier introduced plans to delist 100,000 firms from its register over extended inactivity and failure to adjust to statutory necessities beneath the Firms and Allied Issues Act.
In keeping with a public discover issued by the fee on the time, the affected firms have been recognized as entities that had both stopped carrying on enterprise, remained inactive for at the very least 10 years, or failed to fulfill key regulatory obligations, notably the submitting of annual returns and disclosure of Individuals with Vital Management.
The CAC gave the affected firms a 90-day window from the date of publication to regularise their standing by submitting all excellent annual returns and, the place relevant, sending activation emails to [email protected]
Extra insights
Magaji additionally mentioned the fee has operationalised a Useful Possession Register, enabling the general public to determine the final word homeowners of firms working in Nigeria.
- He famous that the register has turn out to be a worldwide reference level for company transparency and efforts to fight monetary crimes.
- On workers welfare, the registrar normal mentioned CAC has launched housing and automobile mortgage schemes and is planning to set up a well being facility to cater for serving and retired workers.
He mentioned the anniversary celebration mirrored the fee’s teamwork, resilience and dedication to service supply.
- “The power you see right here at present represents our workforce and their dedication to serving over 200 million Nigerians,” he mentioned.
What it is best to know
Nairametrics has reported that the Fee has been steadily digitising its operations to enhance service supply and ease of doing enterprise in Nigeria.
- In July 2025, the fee unveiled a brand new AI-powered registration portal designed to remodel the corporate registration expertise by dashing up approvals, enabling instantaneous title reservations, and considerably decreasing the time it takes to generate enterprise certificates.
- The system goals to ship registration certificates in beneath half-hour as soon as a person’s Nationwide Identification Quantity (NIN) is verified. A shift from conventional, in-office procedures to technology-driven options that permit entrepreneurs to finish enterprise registration remotely.
CAC additionally improve and optimise its portal for smoother entry and improved person expertise, a part of a broader technique to simplify compliance and speed up digital adoption throughout its platforms.
The fee additionally introduced the elimination of 247 firms from its database for working with false Registered Certificates (RC) numbers.
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