Nigeria Company Check: What to Verify Before Investing

Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission holds the register, including beneficial ownership data introduced under CAMA 2020. Knowing what to request is most of the work.

Nigeria's corporate register is administered by the Corporate Affairs Commission, established under the Companies and Allied Matters Act. The current statute, CAMA 2020, introduced significant changes including beneficial ownership disclosure requirements. The Commission's services and public search are reached through its official website and its company search service.

Confirm the entity itself

Ask for the exact registered name and the RC number, then confirm both at the Commission. Points to establish:

Entity type. A business name, a company limited by shares, a company limited by guarantee and an incorporated trustee carry different obligations and different meanings for a counterparty.
Registration date. An entity incorporated shortly before an approach involving significant sums warrants explanation.
Registered address and whether it corresponds to any operating address you have been given.
Directors and shareholders as recorded, and whether they match the people you are dealing with.
Status, including whether annual returns are up to date. Persistent non-filing is a governance signal.

Beneficial ownership

CAMA 2020 brought in requirements around disclosure of persons with significant control. Ask for the entity's beneficial ownership position and check it against what the Commission holds. Where the shareholders of record are themselves companies, trace upward until you reach identified natural persons, and note that a nominee arrangement is not the same as a beneficial owner.

Sector regulators matter as much as the registry

Registration with the CAC permits a company to exist. It does not permit regulated activity. Confirm the specific licence with the sector regulator: banking and payments with the Central Bank of Nigeria, capital markets activity with the Securities and Exchange Commission, telecoms with the Nigerian Communications Commission, upstream and midstream petroleum with the relevant petroleum regulators, and pharmaceuticals with NAFDAC. A claimed licence that the regulator's own register does not show is decisive.

Screen the people

Run directors, significant shareholders and any intermediary against the official sanctions sources listed in how to check if you are on a sanctions list, across name variants. Add searches of Nigerian and foreign enforcement actions, litigation and insolvency records. Where a principal is a politically exposed person, treat it as a basis for enhanced scrutiny rather than as a conclusion.

Financial and operational corroboration

Audited financial statements for at least two years, and confirmation of the auditor's identity and standing.
Tax standing with the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Named clients and completed contracts, confirmed directly with those counterparties.
Site verification for any claimed facility, ideally in person.

Next step

Compare entity, individual and combined scopes on report types, then order a report.