CAC BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION : STEP BY STEP GUIDE

CAC BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION: HOW TO REGISTER YOUR BUSINESS NAME YOURSELF WITHOUT PAYING ANY LAWYER.

If you want to learn how you can register a business name with CAC, then you are on the right place. In this article, I will teach you step by step how your can do that by yourself. But first, let me tell you that there is difference between Business Name and Limited Liability Company. A Business Name is a company without share capital while Limited Liability Company is a company with shares Capital. Also Business Name can be one man business while Limited Liability Company must have at least 2 shareholders.

To know more about the difference between Business Name and Limited Liability Company, kindly visit our CAC Business Registration Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ). However if you intention is to register a Limited Liability Company, we have a step by step guide on how to register a private company Limited by shares that will walk you through.

STEP 1 FOR CAC BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION: PUBLIC SEARCH

I- SIMPLE NAME SEARCH

The first step to take for any CAC Business Name Registration is to check if the name you want to give your business is available. Why is it important ?

The reason is very simple. If you pick a business name that is already taken, CAC will deny you that name and you will loose money. This is because the name reservation fee is not refundable. So any time you ask CAC to reserve a business name, you will need to always pay for the name’s reservation fee.

That’s why it’s recommended to always check the availability of the name first. How do you do that? It very simple.

First, visit CAC public search Portal.
Second, input your intend business name and click search as indicated in the screenshot below

After clicking on “search”, you will be directed to another page. If your proposed business name was taken, you will see it on that page, else you will see an empty page. An empty page means that your proposed business name is not yet taken while page with names similar to your proposed business name means that the name might have been taking as indicated in the below picture.

II- THOROUGH NAME SEARCH

As you can see below, the Business Name (SAMOA) that I intended to use is already taken. But if the page appeared empty, it could be that the business name is still available to be used.

But to be sure that the name is truly available, you to have successively click on where is written “Business Name“, “Company“, “Incorporated Trustees“, “Limited Partnership“, “Limited Liability by Partnership” as indicated on the picture below. If the page appears blank each time you click on those different type of companies you can confidently said that the name is still available and you can go ahead to reserve it.

The above screenshots demonstrate perfectly well what I said earlier. Let’s me explain. While searching for “Life hope Salvation”, the name was not found under “Business Name” neither under “Company“. Which could mean that the name is not taken and that it is available. But when you go further, you will realize that the name is registered under ” Incorporated Trustees“. In this case, there is not guarantee that CAC will approve such name even though you want to register it under “Business Name” as a sole proprietor business.

So always make sure that the proposed business name is not registered at all under any type of business registration before you proceed for proper registration. That is the first step to take for your CAC Business Name registration.

STEP 2 FOR CAC BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION: SIGN-UP ON CAC REGISTRATION PORTAL

I- CREATION OF CAC ACCOUNT

The second step is to sign up on CAC registration Portal.

At this stage, you will need to either put in your phone number that is linked to your NIN or your National Identification Number (NIN) itself. If an account was created with the same phone number, you will get an message saying “Phone number already taken“. But if you don’t have such message or similar, you can proceed by clicking on “next“. Take a look at the screenshot below for better understanding.

After clicking on “next” you will be directed to a page similar to the screenshot below. Here you will notice that some of your personal information like your “Surname“, “First Name“, “Date of birth“, etc… are already filled. This is because the CAC Portal and NIN portal are synchronized.
As for other information, you will need to fill them including your personal email. Make sure to provide valid email address you always have access to. This is because an email validation message will be sent to you. After all information filled properly click on “register” to create your CAC account as described below.

II- CAC ACCOUNT VALIDATION

After clicking on “register“, an email will be sent to your email inbox. What you have to do is to click on the email activation link to validate your account and then sign in. You can sign into your account using either your “email“, “username“, “phone number“. And then press “submit” to go to the next page

On the next page, you will need to input the password you have initially created and then click on ” Login” as described on the screenshot below.

We’ve now concluded the second step of our CAC business Name registration. Let’s now dive into the third step

STEP 3 FOR CAC BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION: NAME RESERVATION

The third step for CAC Business Name Registration is to reserve the name. Without reserving the name, we can’t proceed for proper registration. For that, we need to go through 4 stages.

I-LOGIN INTO YOUR CAC ACCOUNT

After you have logged into your CAC account, look down where it’s written “New Name Reservation” as showed on the screenshot below. Click on it and you will be landed to another page where you will provide some basic information about your business information .

II-FILL IN YOUR BUSINESS NAME DETAILS

As I said earlier, at this stage of CAC Business Name Registration, you will need to provide some basic information about your business. Those information are as follow:

Proposed Name (Option 1): Here you need to write the name you want your business to bear.
Proposed Name(option 2): Write another name different from the first proposed name. The reason why this is important is that if the first name is denied, this option 2 may be taken in replacement so your money won’t be wasted.
Classification: Among all the 5 options that will be presented to you, choose “Business Name” as “classification” because that’s what we are going to register.
Company Type: As we selected “Business Name” as “Classification”, here we will have 2 options to choose from. If your company is one man company, then choose “Sole proprietor“. But if it’s company that is created by at least two people, choose “Partnership” as option.

After that, click on “save & continue” to continue the CAC Business name reservation. See all that has been said at this point in the example below.

III- OBJECTIVES

A this point you will need to provide some additional information related to your business. Those information are as follow:

Reason for Availability search: As we are doing new CAC Business Name registration, select as option ” New Incorporation/Registration“.
Nature of Business Category: Here you need to select the category of your business. For instance, if you are into fish farming, you can select “Agriculture Forestry & Fishing“. But If you do not see the category your business belongs to, you can choose anyone that is close to that.
Specific Nature of Business: This is just a sub-category of your business. In the case of our example of fish farming, you can choose at this level “Fish Farming/ Aquaculture“.
Additional Remarks: This is optional. So you can leave this blank.

After providing information by following the example below, click on “save & continue” to continue your CAC Business Name registration.

After clicking on “Save & Continue“, you will be landed to the “Previous page“

IV-PREVIEW OF ALL INFORMATION

You don’t have much to do here. What you need to do is to review all information you have provided previously. If those information are correct, click on “Save & Continue“. But if you realize that there is typo mistake somewhere, click on “Back” to go back and rectify the mistake. Below is a sample of the previous I’m talking about.

Clicking on “Save & Continue” means that all information provided are correct and that you are ready to make payment.

V- MAKE PAYMENT

After clicking on “Save & Continue“, you will be directed to the payment page to make payment. For that, first click on “Remita” as showed on the screenshot below. After that you will access another page which is the proper payment page. There you have many payment options to choose from. Those options are “debit card“, “USSD“, “Direct Bank transfer” or “Wallet“. You choose the one that is convenient for you. As for me I’m used to “Debit card” payment. So if you select that option, all you have to do is to input your card details, and click “Pay“.

An OTP will then be sent to your phone number. Use it to confirm your transaction. After putting in the OPT, just wait awhile for the system to confirm your payment. A “successful transaction” or “failed transaction” message will pop up as the case may be.

That’s how you can make payment to reserve a name for your business. This also marks the end of the step 3 of our CAC Business Name registration. Now let continue with the proper registration.

STEP 4 FOR CAC BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION: PROPER REGISTRATION

After paying for the name reservation, from time to time, you need to login into your CAC account to check if the name is approved. You can also consult your email inbox from time to time to check if an approval email is sent to you. Whether the name is approved or not, an email will be sent to you just to notify you of the commission decision. If the name is approved, you will see an availability Code attached to it. What is the availability Code for and how to use it? That’s what you will learn next.

I- HOW TO USE THE AVAILABILITY CODE?

When you get the approval email, login back to your CAC account. Below is what your dashboard will look like.

Scroll down and click on “New Company Registration” to start the proper CAC Business Name Registration. After clicking on “New Company Registration“, you will be directed to another page where you will put your availability code.

The above screenshot is a sample of the page you will be landed to after clicking on “New Company Registration“. This is also where you will input the availability code. Hit the “enter button” on your device and your company name will pop up. If you don’t hit the enter button of your device, nothing will pop up and you won’t be able to continue. When your Business Name pops up alongside with mention “Start Registration “, hit this later to continue with the CAC Business Name Registration.

II- FILL IN YOUR BUSINESS DETAILS

The next screenshot is a lookalike of the page you will be directed to after hitting “Start Registration“.

At this point you need to provide information about your business. Those information are as follow:

Business Commencement Date: There is trap here and I will help you avoid it. The best practice is to use a date that is a month or less away from the date you are doing the registration. For instance if you are doing the registration on 03rd February 2021, you can choose as Business commencement date 15th January 2021. With this practice you won’t start paying tax early.
Email & Phone Number: You can input your personal email address and phone number here. It doesn’t matter
Principal Place of Business: Here you need to provide information about the address of your business. If your business doesn’t have a location, you can choose and provide your house address information.
Branch Address (If any): Do not worry about this. Just leave it blank unless your business has another branch elsewhere.

After providing all necessary information, click on “Save & Continue” to move to the next stage of your CAC Business Name Registration.

II- PARTICULARS OF PROPRIETORS

After providing your business address, now it’s time to provide information about your business partners. If you are the sole proprietor, you can skip this step and click on “Save & Continue” to go to the next stage. But if you are two or more who own the business, you need to provide their personal information and address by clicking on “Add individual Proprietor“. However if another company has ownership right in your business, click “Add Corporate Proprietor” to provide all necessary information about that company. When you are done providing all those information, click on “Add Proprietor“. See screenshot below to get an idea.

As I said earlier, you can skip this if you are the sole proprietor of the business. But first crosscheck if your information are correct and click on “Save & Continue” to continue the process.

III- FILL IN THE NATURE OF BUSINESS

You’ve surely specified the nature of the business while applying for the name’s reservation. But here again, you need to repeat the process by providing the follow information:

Nature of Business Category: Here you need to select the category of your business. For instance, if you are into fish farming, you can select “Agriculture Forestry & Fishing“. But If you do not see the category your business belongs to, you can choose anyone that is close to that.
Specific Nature of Business: This is just a sub-category of your business. In the case of our example of fish farming, you can choose at this level “Fish Farming/ Aquaculture“.
Other Nature of Business Description: Here you need to add others activities related to your business. Example: if you produce and sell feed, you should mention it here. In fact any others activities related to your business should be mentioned here.

After that, click on “Add Nature of Business” to review if the information you’ve just provided here are correct. If they are not, click on “Edit” to correct the mistake. If they are correct, click on “Save & Continue” to continue your CAC Business Name Registration. See screenshot below.

IV- UPLOADING OF DOCUMENT

On this page, you just need to upload the following document:

Means of Identification: The only means of Identification acceptable is National Identification Card. Any other ID card will be rejected by the commission and therefore delay the approval. You need to convert it to PDF before uploading it if not it will be rejected. When you are ready to upload it, click “upload”
Signature: You just need to sign on piece of paper, snap and upload it. That’s all you need to do
A Passport Photograph: Here also you just need to snap your Passport photograph with your phone and upload it.

How to upload each document? It’s very simple. Just click on “Upload” and you will be directed to the location where the document is. Then select the document and it will be uploaded. Look at the screenshot below for more clarification.

When all documents are uploaded, click on “Save & Continue“. This will lead you to the next page which is the “Preview Page“.

V- PREVIEW YOUR ENTRIES

You have nothing to do here. Just crosscheck all the information you have provided previously. You will see the summary on the “Previous Page”. If there is any mistake somewhere, click on “Back” to back go and rectify it. But if you are satisfied, with them, click on “Save & Continue” to finalize your CAC Business Name registration. Below is what the “Preview Page” looks like.

VI- PAYMENT FOR YOUR CAC BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION

After previously clicking on “Save & Continue“, you will be directed to the payment page. Then click on “remita” as it’s indicated on the above and below pictures. After that you will land on the proper payment page where you will need to choose your payment option. There many payment options to choose from but the one I’m used to is debit card payment. If you choose that, all you need to do is to fill in your debit card details accordingly and click on “Pay“. After that you will need to confirm your transaction by inputting the OPT that will be sent to you.

That’s how to make payment for your CAC Business Name Registration.

FINAL STEP FOR BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION (OPTIONAL)

This step is not compulsory but necessaire. After making payment, download your payment receipt by clicking on “download“. You may need that in the future. After downloading your receipt you can go back to your dashboard by clicking on “Go to dashboard“.

POST CAC BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION

The commission will send an approval email to your email inbox when your business is registered. After getting the approval, all you need to do is to login into your CAC account and download your CAC CERTIFICATE and all related documents within 7 days. Those documents are important and will be required when you want to open a corporates account. Without them you can’t open a corporate account. And you have only 7 days to download and print them. Only the certificate can be downloaded while others documents can not be. So unless you have printer in house or in your office, you are advised to do all this in a cybercafé.

Mind you, after 7 days, you won’t be able to get access to them on your CAC dashboard. Therefore you will have to pay an additional fee to the commission before you could download and print them.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD AND PRINT YOUR CAC CERTIFICATE & RELATED DOCUMENTS?

The procedure is as follow:

Visit the CAC Login Portal to login into your CAC account.
Input your “Username“, click on “I’m not a robot“, and then on “submit“
Input your “Password” and then click on “Login“
On you dashboard, scroll down and click on where it’s written “REGISTERED“. After that you will be redirected to the another page.
Click on “Download Documents” highlighted in green.
On the 5th page, click on “Download” under “Status Reports” and under “Certificate” successively to print your CAC Certificate and other related documents.

Take a look on the images below to better understanding

FINAL WORDS

We have come to an end of our CAC Business Name Registration. If you have any question, drop it in question comment section and I will answer to you without delay.

You can also WhatsApp me directly if you have any difficulty or are stuck while doing the registration. You can also contact me if you want me to do the registration for you to save you much time and stress.

Best Regards