CAC Registration Fees — What Each Entity Type Actually Costs

Business name registration costs ₦10,000 plus ₦500 for name reservation, total ₦10,500 in CAC statutory fees. A private limited company starts at ₦10,000 (smallest share-capital tier) and scales at ₦10,000 per ₦1,000,000 of declared share capital. The Tax Identification Number is bundled on the certificate at no extra fee since the June 2020 CAC-FIRS integration; the figures above are the gazetted New Schedule of Fees dated 29 May 2025.

The CAC statutory schedule sits in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette No. 92, Vol. 112, dated 29 May 2025, Statutory Instrument No. 6. The implementation date was moved twice — first from 1 August to 1 September 2025, then from 1 September to 1 October 2025 per CAC's "Extension of Implementation Date for New Fees to October 1, 2025" public notice — and the schedule has been in force since 1 October 2025 as the current authoritative reference.

The single most useful row for most readers is the entity type they are actually registering. Pick that row first, multiply the share capital where the entity is share-capital-based, and add the reservation. That is the CAC statutory cost; the agent fee (if any) sits on top and is separately invoiced.

The CAC statutory line in the New Schedule of Fees gazetted 29 May 2025 is the authoritative reference. iCRP portal flows sometimes display bundled totals where the displayed checkout figure is higher than the gazetted statutory line. A reader who sees ₦20,000 at the iCRP portal for what the gazette lists as ₦10,000 is looking at a bundled figure that includes processing surcharges, a third-party payment-aggregator fee, or a service charge added at checkout.

The difference is the portal's processing surcharge, not a fee schedule update. CAC has not gazetted a revised statutory line above the May 2025 figures at the time of writing; any portal-displayed figure above the gazette is the bundled total, not the new statutory amount.

How to read the discrepancy:

• Gazetted line. ₦10,000 for business name registration, ₦500 for name reservation. The line item the CAC statutory schedule charges.
• Portal-displayed total. Sometimes ₦11,000 to ₦20,000 for the same operation. The line items in this total are: the CAC statutory line, the Remita processing surcharge (typically ₦100 to ₦500), and where the portal flow bundles a third-party service (some accredited-agent-facing portals do this) an additional service charge.
• Accredited-agent invoice. Separate from both above. The agent's service fee is on the agent's invoice; the CAC statutory line is itemised separately and passes through unchanged.

If a portal flow displays a total materially different from the gazetted line and a portal-side breakdown is not visible, contact the iCRP support channel at icrp.cac.gov.ng to ask for the breakdown before paying. A flat-rate higher figure with no breakdown is one of the symptoms of an informal third-party processor that has wrapped the iCRP flow.

Since the CAC-FIRS integration began on 29 June 2020 the Tax Identification Number is generated automatically and appears on the CAC certificate at the moment of issuance. There is no separate CAC line for TIN issuance, no separate FIRS line for the routine case, and no separate Joint Revenue Board fee.

This matters for the fee table above because some informal CAC consultants quote 'TIN issuance' as a separate paid line, sometimes ₦5,000 to ₦15,000. The CAC statutory schedule does not contain a TIN-issuance line; any informal consultant charging for TIN issuance is charging for a service the registry already performs automatically.

From 1 January 2026 the Nigeria Tax Administration Act has consolidated the framework further.

For a certificate issued before June 2020 the TIN is not on the original certificate and a manual application through the FIRS portal is the route to obtain one. The fee for the manual TIN application is set by FIRS (or by the JRB from 1 January 2026) and sits outside the CAC schedule. See the forthcoming how to get a TIN after CAC registration guide for the manual route.

Annual returns are the principal post-incorporation fee that every registered entity carries. The fee depends on entity type and, for companies, on share capital.

The annual returns fee is the routine cost of keeping the entity in good standing. Missing the filing window triggers the late-filing penalty schedule below. For the substantive filing procedure see the forthcoming CAC annual returns guide.

A late annual return draws a one-off penalty plus a daily default penalty that accrues until the filing clears. The longer the delay the heavier the catch-up cost.

The schedule in table form:

A second consequence of late filing is the loss of access to certain post-incorporation services until the returns are brought current — change of name, addition of directors, increase of share capital, certified true copies, and any other filing that requires the entity to be in good standing. The penalty is the visible cost; the practical paralysis at post.cac.gov.ng until the returns clear is the heavier cost for an active company.

Late-filing penalties accrue by the day, not just the month — a six-month delay on a small-company return alone adds nearly ₦19,000 in penalty on top of the underlying fee. A company that has missed annual returns continuously sits in Inactive status from the first missed return; after 10 consecutive years of non-filing under Section 692 of CAMA 2020 the company sits on the striking-off shortlist, with restoration through a Federal High Court application under Section 693 if struck off. See CAC annual returns for the three deadline windows and the catch-up procedure.

A handful of post-incorporation operations carry their own statutory lines.

These line items appear under the post-incorporation schedule in the gazette and apply to most entity types. Specific entity-type variations exist; the figures above are the standard cases.

The figures above are the CAC statutory schedule. An accredited agent's service fee — for an NBA-credentialled lawyer, an ICAN- or ANAN-credentialled accountant, or an ICSAN-credentialled chartered secretary — sits separately on the agent's own invoice.

Typical agent service fees in 2026 for a routine engagement:

• Business name registration. ₦15,000 to ₦40,000 in agent service fees, on top of the CAC statutory ₦10,500.
• Private limited company on Model articles. ₦40,000 to ₦150,000 in agent service fees, on top of the share-capital-scaled CAC line.
• Private limited company with bespoke MEMART. ₦100,000 to ₦400,000 depending on the drafting complexity, on top of the CAC line.
• Company limited by guarantee. ₦150,000 to ₦500,000 depending on whether the agent also runs the Attorney-General's consent application; this is one of the heavier registration types because the documentary chain is long and the AG-consent route adds professional time.
• Incorporated trustees. ₦200,000 to ₦500,000 typically, often including the newspaper-publication coordination and the SCUML registration that follows.

These figures are market typicals, not statutory. Agents set their own fees in line with the engagement complexity and their professional positioning. An accredited agent's invoice itemises the CAC statutory line and the agent's service fee separately; the CAC line passes through unchanged.

The DIY route at pre.cac.gov.ng avoids the agent fee entirely. For a routine business name or single-shareholder small private company on Model articles the DIY route is a first-class path under CAMA 2020 and the saving on agent fees is the value of the time the applicant spends on the form.

Every CAC fee in the schedule is paid through Remita at the iCRP portal, against a Remita Retrieval Reference (RRR) generated at the payment step.

• Card payment on the portal. Fastest. Card payments usually reconcile within an hour and the CAC dashboard flips from Pending to Paid inside the hour. The card payment route is the recommended default for most applicants.
• Bank counter payment via RRR. Slower. The bank counter accepts cash or a transfer against the printed RRR; the bank's clearing cycle then routes the payment through Remita to CAC. Reconciliation typically takes 24 to 48 hours.
• What is not allowed. Payment to an informal agent or to a third-party 'fast-track' service is not a CAC payment route. The CAC payment runs through Remita; no other channel reconciles to the iCRP portal.

For the recovery sequence when a payment status sticks between bank debit and CAC dashboard confirmation, see CAC payment pending for the four-state diagnostic.

A few line items get quoted as paid CAC services where in fact they are bundled, automated, or non-existent.

• Do NOT pay for TIN issuance as a separate CAC line. The Tax Identification Number is generated automatically through the CAC-FIRS integration since June 2020 and appears on the certificate at no extra CAC fee. Any informal consultant charging for TIN issuance is charging for a service the registry performs automatically.
• Do NOT pay for 'fast-track' or 'expedited' processing at CAC. The published service window is the standard; CAC does not operate a paid fast-track lane. A consultant offering one is selling something the framework does not provide.
• Do NOT pay for 'name guarantee' before a public search. The reservation does not guarantee that the name will subsequently pass the formal availability check. The free public search at publicsearch.cac.gov.ng is the cheapest filter; no paid guarantee improves on it.
• Do NOT pay an inflated portal-displayed figure without asking for a breakdown. A portal flow showing a materially higher total than the gazetted line is bundling a processing surcharge or a third-party service charge; ask for the breakdown before paying.
• Do NOT pay an informal agent in cash to 'release the hold' on a stuck CAC application. The recovery routes through the iCRP support channel, Remita helpdesk, and the bank's Remita reconciliation desk; informal channels cannot bypass the institutional flow.