The Corporate Affairs Commission issued a public reminder this week: if you run a small, unregistered business in Nigeria, the federal government will register it for free — but only if you go through the right channel, and only while slots remain among the 250,000 on offer. It’s a useful nudge, but the programme itself has a longer backstory than the reminder alone suggests, and knowing that history matters for understanding how real and how time-limited this opportunity actually is.
This isn’t a brand-new announcement. The initiative traces back to September 2025, when CAC Registrar-General Hussaini Ishaq Magaji and SMEDAN Director-General Charles Odii signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Abuja committing both agencies to deliver 250,000 free business-name registrations nationwide. President Bola Tinubu gave the programme its highest-profile moment in June this year, formally approving it during the 8th National MSME Awards at the State House in Abuja. This week’s CAC notice is best read as a reminder that the window is still open, paired with a warning that’s become necessary as awareness of the programme has spread: fraudsters are already trying to exploit it.
The offer covers business-name registration specifically, the standard route for sole traders and partnerships, not full incorporation as a limited liability company or registration as an NGO. A registration like this normally costs around ₦11,000, and CAC is waiving that fee entirely for all 250,000 approved slots, a total giveaway of roughly ₦3 billion in registration revenue. Beyond the free paperwork, officials say beneficiaries also get technical training and business development support aimed at helping the business actually survive and grow once it’s formalised, not just get a certificate and stop there.
Eligibility is fairly specific. The programme targets nano, micro, and small businesses that aren’t already registered with CAC. If your business is already registered, you don’t need to apply, and if your business is already in SMEDAN’s database without a CAC registration, you should qualify automatically without extra steps. What it doesn’t cover is just as important: this is strictly for business names, so if you’re trying to register a limited liability company or an incorporated trustee, this particular programme isn’t the route.
The process runs entirely through SMEDAN, not CAC directly. Visit portal.smedan.gov.ng and complete the registration form, which feeds into a process where SMEDAN mobilises, prepares, and profiles eligible businesses and issues a SMEDAN Unique Identification Number, or SUIN, as part of enrolment. With only 250,000 slots against a far larger population of unregistered Nigerian businesses, this is very likely a first-come, first-served allocation in practice, even if that isn’t stated as an explicit rule, so earlier applicants are in a stronger position than those who wait.
This is the part of the notice that matters most for anyone applying: the Corporate Affairs Commission will not request payment for this registration, under any circumstance. If someone contacts you claiming they can fast-track your application, guarantee you a slot, or process your registration faster for a fee, that is not CAC and not SMEDAN. The only legitimate route is the official portal at portal.smedan.gov.ng, and the only cost involved in the entire process is zero.
Formalisation sounds like a bureaucratic detail, but for Nigeria’s enormous informal MSME sector it’s often the single barrier standing between a business and everything that follows from being recognised: access to bank financing, eligibility for government grants and intervention funds, and a credible footing to negotiate with suppliers, landlords, or larger corporate partners. Removing the ₦11,000 cost doesn’t sound like much on its own, but for a nano or micro business operating on thin margins, it’s frequently the exact amount standing between staying informal indefinitely and finally being on the books. Whether 250,000 registrations meaningfully dents Nigeria’s much larger informal economy is a bigger question, but for the entrepreneurs who get one of these slots, the practical difference is immediate.
