CAC annual returns filing fee for business name
Registering a business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission is only step one. Every year after that, you’re required to file annual returns to keep the registration active — and that filing comes with its own fee, separate from anything you paid at registration.
The Standard Fee
For a registered business name (sole proprietorship or partnership operating under a business name), the CAC annual returns filing fee is approximately ₦5,000 per year. This is the statutory charge for filing on time, for a single year, with no outstanding arrears.
This fee is intentionally lower than what limited companies pay, reflecting the simpler compliance obligations attached to a business name — there’s no requirement to submit full financial statements, no board resolutions, and generally fewer supporting documents.
What the Fee Covers
The annual returns filing for a business name confirms to CAC that:
- The business is still active and operating
- The proprietor’s details on record are current
- The business address and nature of business are accurate
- Any changes to the business (change of proprietor, change of name, change of address) have been properly reflected
If nothing has changed since your last filing, the process is largely a confirmation exercise rather than a full document submission.
What’s Not Included in the Base Fee
The ₦5,000 figure covers only the on-time filing itself. It does not include:
- Late filing penalties, charged separately for each year you’re behind
- Fees for related changes, such as a change of proprietorship, change of business address, or change of business name, each of which is filed and charged separately from the annual return
- Agent or professional service charges, if you choose to have someone file on your behalf rather than doing it yourself on the CAC portal
How to Pay
Filing and payment for a business name’s annual return is done through the CAC portal (icrp.cac.gov.ng). You log in with your registered account, select the annual returns option, confirm your business details are current, and pay the filing fee online before the return is submitted for CAC’s records.
If You’re Behind on Filing
If your business name has missed one or more years, you’ll need to file for each outstanding year separately, starting with the earliest. Each year carries its own ₦5,000 base fee plus a late filing penalty (typically ₦2,500–₦5,000 per year of default), so the longer the gap, the more it costs to close it. There’s no way to file a single lump payment covering multiple years without going through each year individually.
Bottom line: at roughly ₦5,000 a year, keeping a business name’s annual returns current is one of the cheapest compliance tasks a small business owner in Nigeria has — and one of the easiest to let slip without realizing the cost is quietly growing in the background.
