CAC launched the online portal some years back, and upgraded it a few years ago. This has removed the rigors of the process.
One of the objectives of this portal is to boost documentation of SMEs, and to eliminate the middlemen (agents) who charge people double the amount of the costs of registration (most people reading this don't need an agent).
I will give specific details here, with some simplified terms.

What can you register?
Business Name - simple registration as a sole-proprietor or partnership. Recommended for most starters.
Limited Liability Company - This is a body corporate, involves shareholders, directors, company secretary, etc.
Limited partnerships - Good for joint venture agreements between companies.
Incorporated Trustees - For Non-profit, NGOs, churches, etc.

I could try explain them later. But most businesses will choose between the first two.
* Do you own a small shop, selling goods, catering services, DJ or live-band, photo studio, supplier, etc? If your business is very specific and you run it yourself, maybe employ a few people - go for business name.
* Do you have a business you want to grow into a structured organization? If you are considering doing multiple types of businesses, manufacturing, importing, big farm or transport services, etc. - go for limited company.
* If you are a non-profit cooperative or church or mosque or NGO - go for incorporated trustees. You will likely need an agent for this one.

Making a choice between these two might not be that straightforward and will largely depend on your preferences. But some types of businesses are regulated and will compel you to choose a particular one. You can also change your business name into a limited company later.
I will explain the first two, based on frequently asked questions when people ask me for advice.

Check https://www.cac.gov.ng/schedule-of-fees/ for CAC fees information.
For company, I'm referring to LTD here and not PLC or LTD/GTE. These other two are not for starters so just keep them off your radar. You most likely don't need them if you are reading this.

BUSINESS NAME
- Name search
- Name reservation
- Registration
Cost: N10k - N11k

Date of commencement - Choose any future date if you are starting afresh. You could pick a month or more from the time you are doing this registration. If you've been operating fully before now put the appropriate date.

Name search
Think of a name for your business if you don't already have one
Go to https://search.cac.gov.ng/home and search for that name under all the categories. If you see something similar, your own will have to be different by at least two words. For instance let's say my business is "DARTH VADER ENTERPRISES " and this search comes with something like "Vader Investments Ltd" and "Darth Vader Concepts". In this case your own will be rejected if you do name reservation. But if you want to maintain that name you can say "DARTH VADER STAR SERVICES". Notice how I added two words the previously registered ones don't have on their names.
There are reserved words like Force, Inc., Group, Agency, Department, etc or any other word that suggest a govt. parastatal (local or international), that CAC will refuse or ask you to seek consent from Register-General. For a beginner, just avoid such names as it could turn your simple registration into a nightmare.

Name reservation
You will spend N500 in this step.
Go to https://pre.cac.gov.ng/home and go to the top right corner, click register to open a user account on the portal, make sure you use an email you have access to. Once you complete the registration (skip the part that asks for accreditation number, this is for agents), sign in to the portal and go to new name reservation. Fill the forms, selecting Business name and the type of business name (sole or partnership). You have two name options you. CAC will try to reserve the first one, if not available, they would try the second one. If available you get approval notice. If both are not available you get a rejection notice - that means you start new reservation again and pay another money.

Registration
Go to the portal and click New Company Registration. Enter the availability code and fill the forms after. Your availability code will show on your approval notice clearly.
What you need here is your personal address, the address for your business (you can use same as the former), passport photo, ID card (Just use your NIN slip since everybody has that now. But your international passport, drivers' license, permanent voters card can also be used).
In the nature of business you can add a few options, try to keep it maximum of three (3), and make sure they are related businesses. If they are too different, you registration could get queried, you don't want that. If you want to include unrelated types of businesses register a limited company instead.
Most of the things you need to fill here are instinctive and doesn't need special skills. After that you will be prompted to pay registration fees (N10,000).
If all goes well, in 1-3 days you will receive registration notification and your BN number. Go to the portal to download your certificate and other certified documents.

You just finished your registration!

LIMITED COMPANY
- Name search
- Name Reservation
- Registration
Cost: about N25K for N1m share capital, and about N15k extra for every additional N1m share capital you want.
For most new registrations, except your have huge capital to invest, stay between N1m-N3m share capital to remain classified as SME. This will be helpful when you need SME loans and grants from govt. and international funding.

**Your company is different from you legally. So even though you are a director (entitled to director's fees every year, as agreed with other directors/shareholders), you can still be an employee (e.g. Operations Manager, CEO, Consultant) of the same company who is entitled to salaries, consultancy fess, fringe benefits, etc. These need to be reasonably done, anyway, to not suggest tax evasion or deliberately defrauding/milking off your own company. Your actions/decisions should suggest you intend for the continued existence, profitability and growth of the company.**

Shares (ordinary) - this is the amount you owe to your company as owner. Your initial investment. You don't need to have the N1m now for instance. But over time you should have injected this into your business. For instance, let's say you have two shareholders with 500k shares each. You can pay this money into the company account after registration. Or maybe you rent office space for 300k, or you sell your laptop (e.g. valued 200k) to your company, you can decide to offset these to pay for your shares. Other ways might be telephone or transport costs you incur on behalf of the company, services you render that has monetary value, or salary the company did not pay you at the beginning of its operations. Anyhow you agree to offset the cost of the shares with the other shareholders - but just make sure it is documented as board resolutions or shareholders general meetings that you have paid the full amount of the shares allocated to you. This could be done at the start or as your business progresses.
Shareholders - these are the owners of the company. They will remain owners until they sell their shares.
Directors - The people who control the business operations. They can be shareholders at the same time.

Name search
Same as what you do with business name. Except in this case your name ends with LIMITED or LTD. So you can have "DARTH VADER STAR SERVICES LIMITED" or "DARTH VADER STAR INTERNATIONAL LTD". Anyhow you want it, just know that the "ltd" or "limited" do not count as additional two words to make your name unique.

Name Reservation
Same as business name. But select COMPANY and PRIVATE COMPANY LIMITED BY SHARES in the classification and specific types. You have two options too and the rest is the same. Same price of N500.

Registration
This might be a bit tricky but not difficult. As with business name, start new registration with your Availability Code. You need the same set of documents. NIN or other ID listed, valid address for every shareholder and/or director.
Nature of business - Here you list what kind of businesses you want to do with the company and they don't have to be related. Although the first one should reflect the general/specific nature of business you selected in the dropdown list. Use phrases like "To carry on the business of farming, food processing, importing and exporting of agro-allied products", "To carry on the business of manufacturing, distribution, supplying, importing and exporting, marketing of mobile phones and accessories" Now you wonder why I added "manufacturing" when you are not Samsung or Oriamo. This is futuristic projection. If you are importing mobile phones, one day you could decide to ask a factory in China to customize phones in your company name, or start your own line of USB cable production locally. But whatever you write here make sure it covers what you want to do with your company, make sure it is clear, concise and unambiguous - easily understandable by even a 12-year old. At the end you could add something like "To carry on the business of general goods and services suppliers" and this covers many things you forgot to mention earlier.
Some types of businesses may require higher share capitals, e.g. airlines or shipping business may require more than N1bn.
**Going into forex or cryptocurrency brokers business classifies your business as fund managers and you will need capital deposit with CBN and SEC license for those.**
Articles of Association - Adopt the default provided by the portal, unless you know what you are doing.
Company secretary - You could skip this if you don't have anyone that understands corporate affairs. But you must appoint one when you need to file annual returns (after every year from date of commencement).
Additional CTC copies - skip this unless you want to have multiple original copies of the same documents. Good idea, though.
Shares - select ordinary shares. Usually just use basics. E.g. 1,000,000 ordinary shares of N1 each. This amounts to N1m share capital. You can now divide these between yourselves. There is no rule on how to share it. Two people can share it equally as 500k each, or 800k and 200k or 990k and 10k - anyhow you agree to.
Shareholders and directors - as you go through the online portal, it will prompt you if you want the same people as shareholders or directors. Most people opt for this.
Stamp duties - you will be redirected to FIRS stamp duties portal at this point where your details are confirmed. It's usually around N8K for every N1m share capital.
CAC will then charge you around N15k for your registration. After this, just wait for notification or registration approval if all goes well.

For incorporated trustees
* You could be asked to submit a consent form during Name Reservation.
* You will need to draft a constitution and bye-laws for your organization. Trustees are the people who control the operations of the organization, their role is equivalent to that of shareholders
* You will need to make publications in two national newspapers and get the evidence (like when doing change of name). You will wait for about a month after those publications before you proceed into registration.
* Drafting constitutions can be done by almost any smart person but it might be better give it to professionals to avoid confusing statements like "25% in two-thirds of the the 36 states and the FCT". This can simple be rephrased into "25% in two-thirds of the 36 states and another 25% in the FCT" or "25% in two thirds of the 36 states, where FCT can substitute for one state". Changing constitution is usually not easy so make sure you know what you are doing. And read what your professional has drafted, if you there is any clause that requires them to explain the meaning to you, or that could be interpreted differently by two people, it is ambiguous and could cause problems later.

In some other cases you might need an agent (lawyer, chartered accountant or secretary) to help you. These are professionals and don't expect to pay N5K. But you can sure start it by yourself, a professional can come in at any stage in the process to complete it for you.
CAC could experience delays or backlog sometimes, don't take it hard on your agent because they might not be able to do anything about it apart from waiting it out.

CAC Queries
Understand what you did wrong or what additional information is required. Best is to avoid these scenarios. You can complete your registration in 3 days if you do it right. But queries could increase that to several weeks. Most CAC offices will not allow you into their premises without accreditation ID card, so don't bank on this to resolve any issue. Their website is very informative such that you won't really need to visit their office for most inquiries.


Disclaimer - I am not a CAC staff but accredited agent. Please visit CAC website to verify every information.

Thanks

Hi, thanks for all this complex explanation. But if i may ask, for company registration, where exactly will one put the 1 million share at. Cos it told me i can't go beyond 100,000 when i chose entity below 5m and the next is issued share capital where i put the same 100,000 figure and the share was between 2 directors who are also a share holder and its 50k share each. Where is the mistake at on my side