The New CAC Fees: What Nigerian Entrepreneurs Need to Know

Come August 1, 2025, Nigerian entrepreneurs will face a significant change, and not the kind most were expecting.

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the agency responsible for registering and regulating businesses in Nigeria, has announced a major upward review of its service fees. In some cases, these fees have doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled. And what’s more concerning? The reasons given for these increases haven’t exactly been transparent.

At a time when Nigeria should be doubling down on supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, this feels like a heavy blow, especially for young startups and struggling SMEs.

🚨 What Changed?

The new fee structure largely affects post-incorporation services, things like:

• Voluntary striking-off
• Relisting companies
• Annual return penalties
• Certified True Copies of documents
• Due diligence searches (which now cost ₦50,000 for self-service)

For example, the fee for voluntarily striking off a company was ₦25,000. It’s now ₦50,000. For public companies? ₦100,000.

All this in the name of "AI inclusion," "technical upgrades," and "sustainability." But for many of us in the entrepreneurial community, these sound more like buzzwords than concrete justifications.

🧾 So, Why the Hike?

The CAC claims the revised fees are meant to sustain its digital transformation and improve service delivery.

A recent Punch article quoted the agency saying:

“The revised fees are intended to ensure sustainability and continuous improvement in its service delivery.”

But here’s the problem: How, exactly?

Where is the breakdown?

What exactly are we paying for?

And why now, when businesses are still trying to recover from inflation, forex instability, and economic uncertainty?

If this truly is about sustainability and tech upgrades, then please: break it down. Let the entrepreneurs understand how these higher costs benefit them.

💼 Why This Matters for Nigerian Entrepreneurs

This move may seem administrative on the surface, but to the average Nigerian entrepreneur, it’s more than that, it’s demotivating.

Already, many businesses are barely surviving, juggling overhead, unstable power, staff salaries, rent, and taxes. Adding a steep regulatory hike with little warning only makes things worse.

This could push struggling entrepreneurs into informality or discourage formal registration entirely, which would be a step backward for Nigeria’s digital and economic ambitions.

🧭 So What Now?

This article is not to “attack” the CAC. That’s not the goal. But it is a call for awareness and clarity.

Entrepreneurs deserve to know:

• What’s changing
• Why it’s changing
• And how it will affect them moving forward

We urge aspiring and existing founders to check the updated CAC fee schedule on their official site and prepare accordingly.

But most importantly, we call on the CAC and other regulators to communicate better. Clearer breakdowns. Public town halls. Transparent planning.

Because if we’re being asked to pay more, we deserve to understand what we’re paying for.

🧠 Final Thoughts

We support digital transformation. We support progress.

But we don’t support opacity, especially when it directly affects the nation’s builders.

In a time when Nigeria’s entrepreneurial ecosystem should be protected, this should’ve been handled with more transparency and care.

Entrepreneurs are not the enemy.

We are the economy.

Let’s be treated, and informed like it.

📌 Want to see the official CAC fee list?

https://www.cac.gov.ng/new-schedule-of-fees-29th-may-2025/

📌 Quoted Punch article:

https://punchng.com/cac-unveils-new-service-fees-starting-august-1/