Nigeria Company Search Guide 2026: How to Verify a Nigerian Business

TL;DR. Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) operates the iCRP portal. https://icrp.cac.gov.ng/public-search/ is online, headed Public Search, with a category selector offering All, RC Number, AV Code and Approved Name, a text box labelled “Entity name, RC number, or AV code…”, and a search button carrying an icon rather than a word. Its own copy reads “Search for existing companies and businesses entities.” The older host https://cac.gov.ng blocked automated checks. No naira extract fees and no payment methods are published on the public-search page, so fees here read unknown rather than free; confirm at source. The FATF site at https://www.fatf-gafi.org is online.

What is the official Nigeria business registry?

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is Nigeria’s statutory company registry under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, succeeding CAMA 1990. The CAC operates under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. The working official surface is the iCRP portal at https://icrp.cac.gov.ng, headed Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). The public-search page is https://icrp.cac.gov.ng/public-search/, headed Public Search.

The older cac.gov.ng hostname blocked automated checks. That block says nothing about fees, and it does not mean the iCRP form is down.

CAMA 2020 is the company-law frame (single-member companies, small-company audit exemptions, LLPs, beneficial-ownership filing duties). This page does not restate its section numbers; confirm at source.

The CAC registers private companies limited by shares (Ltd), public companies limited by shares (Plc), companies limited by guarantee, unlimited companies, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, business names, and incorporated trustees. External companies are also registered. Nigeria does not operate separate state-level company registries.

Nigeria is the economic anchor of ECOWAS and a party to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Those are regional context rather than registry facts.

What can you search?

The public-search page at https://icrp.cac.gov.ng/public-search/ includes:

• A category selector with options All, RC Number, AV Code and Approved Name
• A search box labelled “Entity name, RC number, or AV code…”
• A search button carrying an icon rather than a word

What a search returns, how empty results behave, which status fields appear and whether documents sit behind a further step are not described here; confirm at source. Older descriptions of director listings, annual-return history and wallet checkout are not confirmed.

Search-by-director and search-by-shareholder are not fields on this form.

How much does it cost?

No naira extract figures appear on the iCRP public-search page, so the table below reads unknown rather than free; confirm at source.

No payment methods are published on the public-search page.

Do you need a local account or ID?

The /public-search/ page is a search form, not a login page, so no account is needed to use it. Whether document retrieval, wallet funding or an account wall sits behind a result is not described here; confirm at source. No Nigerian NIN or BVN is requested on that page.

Is the website in English?

Yes. The public-search page is in English, headed Public Search.

What’s the turnaround time?

Unknown. No turnaround is published for a query or for extract fulfilment; confirm at source.

Is there an API?

No public API is documented on the iCRP public-search page, and no iCRP developer page is cited here.

What you legally cannot do

Nigeria’s Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023 (and its predecessor, the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019) governs personal data processing. Director names, shareholder details, and addresses extracted from CAC records constitute personal data under the NDPA when processed by a private entity. Compliance use cases (KYC, AML screening) constitute a legitimate processing purpose, but redistribution of personal data from CAC records for commercial resale requires an appropriate legal basis.

Automated scraping of CAC surfaces is prohibited under CAC terms of use. Bulk data redistribution without a CAC licensing agreement is not permitted.

AML/CFT obligations in Nigeria are administered by the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) under the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022; confirm those statutes at source.

For cross-border due diligence guidance, the Global Business Due Diligence Guide covers Nigeria-specific risk considerations in the Africa tier.

Practical tips for foreign compliance buyers

• RC number is the form’s named identifier. The public-search selector includes an RC Number option. RC has been described as a sequential numeric identifier prefixed with RC. AV Code is labelled on the form but not defined there; confirm at source.
• Distinguish Ltd from Plc. A private company limited by shares (Ltd) is not listed on a stock exchange. A public company limited by shares (Plc) may or may not be listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX); confirm listing status with NGX at source.
• cac.gov.ng is not the search surface. It blocked automated checks. Use the iCRP public-search address.
• FATF listing not confirmed here. Nigeria has been reported as placed under increased monitoring from February 2023. Check the current lists at fatf-gafi.org; confirm at source.
• AfCFTA context. Nigeria has ratified the AfCFTA agreement. That is regional context rather than a registry fact.

Alternatives if you cannot access CAC directly

• Aggregator search (indicative only): OpenCorporates indexes CAC filings but lags official data. Useful for a quick name check; not for compliance-grade verification.
• CAC accredited agents: CAC-accredited agents have been described as filing and retrieving documents. The current status of that programme is not confirmed here; confirm at source.
• Commercial data suppliers (see section below): packaged company intelligence combining registry data with credit scoring.

Local data suppliers

• Dun & Bradstreet Nigeria (dnb.com). Global data provider with West Africa coverage. Offers D-U-N-S registered company reports and credit risk scoring for Nigerian entities.
• CRC Credit Bureau (crccreditbureau.com). Nigeria-licensed credit bureau covering commercial and consumer credit data.
• CR Services Credit Bureau (creditregistry.ng). One of Nigeria’s CBN-licensed credit bureaus.

Use iCRP for the official public-search form. Use a credit bureau when you need payment behaviour on top of a registry extract.

FAQ

Can a foreign company access the Nigeria CAC registry directly?

The public-search form is on a public address with no login wall. Whether a query then requires an account or a payment is not stated; confirm at source. cac.gov.ng blocked automated checks.

What is the RC number in Nigeria?

The public-search form labels an RC Number option. RC has been described as the Registration Certificate number issued at incorporation, typically six to seven digits, prefixed with RC. BN (business names) and IT (incorporated trustees) identifiers are not options on that selector.

What entity types are registered with CAC?

Ltd, Plc, companies limited by guarantee, unlimited companies, limited partnerships, LLPs, business names, incorporated trustees and external companies. Those types are not enumerated on the public-search page; confirm at source.

Does Nigeria have a beneficial ownership (UBO) registry?

There is no public beneficial ownership or PSC search on the public-search page. CAMA 2020 has been described as creating a persons-with-significant-control filing duty that is not public on the portal; confirm at source.

How current is the data in the CAC registry?

Not published on the public-search page; confirm at source.

Is Nigeria on the FATF grey list?

Nigeria’s current listing is not stated here. It has been reported as placed under increased monitoring from February 2023; check the current lists at https://www.fatf-gafi.org.

What is the difference between the CAC registry and Nigeria’s tax and financial regulators?

The CAC issues company registration numbers and maintains company filings. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) issues Tax Identification Numbers. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulates banks and financial institutions. Those are separate bodies from the company registry.

Last verified: 2026-09-04. Sources: icrp.cac.gov.ng/public-search/, the working public-search form; cac.gov.ng, which blocked automated checks; and fatf-gafi.org. No naira extract fees are published on the public-search page. For the full global due diligence framework, see our Global Business Due Diligence Guide.