CAC Nigeria Should Make Their Database Public

I believe it has come to the point where Corporate Affairs Commission should add a space to their website where people can check if their business name is available and if it is not, get recommendations just like when a new website name is about to be registered and spare business people the heart break.

What do you guys think about the idea?

You are damn too right. Such easy stuff should be made available to help aleviate people's stress in chosing a name for their companies and businesses.

i wonder too

I mooted this idea to my lawyer years ago. Google and Yahoo with hundreds of millions of users can confirm the availability of a name within seconds so I don't know CAC's problem. Any way they will lose the N500 fee.

It is long over due but corruption and fear of sudden change will not allow them to adopt such system. After all what will cost compared to the huge benefit particularly to some one who does not understand how our moribund system works

if only we have a responsive and listening government. ..then our wish will be granted so easily

Olu-Emma & Ass.:
I mooted this idea to my lawyer years ago. Google and Yahoo with hundreds of millions of users can confirm the availability of a name within seconds so I don't know CAC's problem. Any way they will lose the N500 fee.

It is the fee that is the main issue here. Besides, Nigerians are just too smart by half and i will not put it past the applicants to contrive ways and means of cheating.

That being said, it would really be a welcome development and it is very possible that this approach may be embraced in the not-too-distant future.

This has been in the plans for long but everytime it comes up for action, a very thick black gworo-chewing mallam who got to the helm via federal character, decides to suspend it.

I know what am saying cos my inlaw works there. Aboki mallam eh! They have finished this country

you wan make them starve? U wan block their runs.. Guy as far as na Federal Govt .. Dont expect that to happen in the next 100 yrs

Heard they are actuali digitizing their records currently, a process they hope to complete dis yr....no doubt dis shld be d norm. Hope they complete d process..

I hope they are reading this...

A CAC WHOIS will be nice too. Look up existing businesses and their public info.

Dual Core: A CAC WHOIS will be nice too. Look up existing businesses and their public info.

+1000

That way we can know if a business exists or not.

And if they insisted on the collecting of money, no problem, they can make their voucher available and reduce it to N50 per search, people will need the pin to access the database, after all, I'm not sure that N500 that they're collecting are getting to the right hands.

Igwe.:
And if they insisted on the collecting of money, no problem, they can make their voucher available and reduce it to N50 per search, people will need the pin to access the database, after all, I'm not sure that N500 that they're collecting are getting to the right hands.

that money is the reason some people kill to get civil service jobs.

That would not happen anytime soon; not in the foreseeable future. We prefer making things difficult for each other in this country. It is probably because a lot of people profit from (man-made) difficulty.

blink182: CAC Nigeria Should Make Their Database Public

I believe it has come to the point where Corporate Affairs Commission should add a space to their website where people can check if their business name is available and if it is not, get recommendations just like when a new website name is about to be registered and spare business people the heart break.

What do you guys think about the idea?

I really suffer a lot for searching a business name last year

taharqa: Heard they are actuali digitizing their records currently, a process they hope to complete dis yr....no doubt dis shld be d norm. Hope they complete d process..

That has been in d offing for ages.

You guys have no idea how corrupt the CAC is and make thing difficult that they will destroy any plans or idea to make the business name available and I will expose all their tricks.

1. Have you ever attempted to visit a CAC of in any state especially the ones in Lagos? It's a mad house and the most disorganized place ever. For you to search a simple name, you have to leave your house to buy a form of N200 now N500 to choose a name. They dont care whether you live in Badagry or Epe, you have to spend more than N1000 to buy a form of N500. Now there is no database for you to view names that has been chosen previously, so all you have to do is rack your brain and pray your name is available. But because you have no way of knowing which name has been chosen, they will continue to reject your names till you get fed up. Imagine Cac having 36 branches and an average of 500 names per day, how would you know which name has been chosen? So they continue to reject and reject names till the lawyer and client gets so tired and a war emanates between the client and the lawyer that one person is not being serious with the other person's work. The worst part is that you have to wait for 2 weeks or more for the name to come out and they still reject it. By the time they release the rejected name, you will be told the name and year the person rejected it and what state. Why not tell me this before I pay or give us the opportunity to check the names that are available? How would a person in Owerri know one Mr Boko haram in Zamfara registered that company name you just put in 1992? I be winch?

2. The fastest way to avoid this scenario is to find someone inside within the corridors of power in the Cac, settle the person with N5k or more to search through the database within 72 hours and your name will be out. Everybody in the Cac is in it. Right from the guards down to the people arranging the name search. You complain about it, they either ignore or sideline you. It's really bad and that's why most lawyers add more money to company registration to make room for all these egunje. It's sad but that's the truth. The moment you make a database where people could search and pay the government directly via scratch cards means you have eliminated the middle men at the Cac and they won't agree. And am sure if it does happen, they will look for loop holes in the system to frustrate the company registration proper before your certificate comes out. I don tire for this country!

pro01: That would not happen anytime soon; not in the foreseeable future. We prefer making things difficult for each other in this country. It is probably because a lot of people profit from (man-made) difficulty.

Exactly sir! Our non-progressive mentallity fuels the following:
1. Provide public access to CAC database = How will CAC clerks and lawyers survive?
2. Get C of O online in 1 week = Haba! How will Alausa public servants and rookie lawyers eat?
3. Fix Power situation = what will become of Diesel suppliers, Mikano, Perkins, CAT and other generator manufacturers? what about the jerrycan sellers etc - the power situation has fuelled a whole new industry.
4. Fix the aviation industry = what will become of the lucrative private jet business?
5. Fix Nitel (Historical dilemma) = what would have happened to our lucrative telecoms licences (MTN, Starcomms etc)
6. Remove import restrictions to promote free trade economy = HABA!!! you want to kill customs and smugglers nigeria inc.

God help us.

blink182: CAC Nigeria Should Make Their Database Public

I believe it has come to the point where Corporate Affairs Commission should add a space to their website where people can check if their business name is available and if it is not, get recommendations just like when a new website name is about to be registered and spare business people the heart break.

What do you guys think about the idea?

create one for them and get paid for it. approaching them with the idea

I incorporated two companies and an NGO in UK after searching by myself from an online directory that the names did not exist. None of those companies took me more than one week to complete and were processed entirely from my home computer. And even though I wound them up a few years ago , the records can still be searched online. I have been trying to create a new NGO for the past 10 months in Nigeria.... USING A LAWYER !.

The closest you can get is http://nigeriaformations.com

Nice one !

The Corporate affairs Commission is quite rotten and has turned into a money making institution, especially with the new unjustified increase in the price of their services. However, the system in Abuja is a bit better, in that when u put in an A/v search, you can get the result now within some hours sometyms, and the result of your search is sent directly to ur email address. but even at this, sometyms, u still need to go to the customer care unit to request that ur search result be sent to ur email, which kinda defeats the entire onlyn thing... the only thing dat actually stops the one week registration thing most of the tym is the stamp duties office, where your payment can stay up to 1 week b4 they stamp it, and u may have to recourse to bribing the official with 1k for it to get stamped within 2days or so.May God help this country and public services. Aameen!

Try out our company formation services for fast and genuine company registration support services. Visit our website (check signature below) to submit an online application today.