TLDR: The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) of Nigeria has announced that its new Artificial Intelligence-driven registration platform, the Intelligent Companies Registration Portal (ICRP), is now processing over 11,000 company registration and compliance cases daily. Despite reports of initial technical hitches and complaints from users, the CAC maintains that these are ‘teething problems’ and that the portal significantly improves efficiency, including processing 8,000 name reservation requests in a single day—a task that previously took weeks.
Abuja, Nigeria – The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has confirmed that its recently launched Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered registration platform, the Intelligent Companies Registration Portal (ICRP), is handling an impressive volume of over 11,000 company registration and compliance transactions on a daily basis. This announcement comes as the commission addresses and defends the portal against complaints of technical glitches and service delays reported by users, particularly legal practitioners and business owners.
Launched on June 30, the ICRP represents a significant leap in Nigeria’s business registration process, aiming to streamline operations and enhance the ease of doing business. The CAC highlighted a remarkable achievement: the portal successfully processed 8,000 name reservation requests in a single day on Friday, July 16, 2025. This task, under the previous manual system, typically required a minimum of two weeks to complete, underscoring the efficiency gains brought by the AI integration.
In a statement released on Sunday, the CAC management acknowledged the ‘expected teething challenges‘ associated with the transition to the new system. However, it firmly dismissed claims of poor service delivery or that the portal is hindering business operations. The commission emphasized its commitment to resolving these initial issues and appealed for patience from its stakeholders.
Key benefits of the ICRP highlighted by the CAC include its cost-effectiveness, as customers now only proceed to payment after securing a company name, eliminating upfront fees for name checks. The system is also designed to issue registration certificates within 30 minutes, provided a director’s National Identification Number (NIN) is successfully confirmed.
Security has been a paramount consideration in the ICRP’s design. In compliance with the Data Protection Act 2023, the portal incorporates enhanced security checks, including the generation of a One-Time Passcode (OTP) for each transaction. This OTP is sent directly to the original account holder’s email or phone number, preventing unauthorized access by third parties and curbing the operation of suspicious accounts.
Despite its successes, the CAC admitted to facing challenges primarily stemming from external partners. Issues such as the National Identity Management Commission’s (NIMC) verification portal being offline for weeks have hampered automatic NIN confirmation. Additionally, intermittent timeouts on REMITA, the government’s payment gateway, and outages on the ProTax platform affecting stamp duty remittances have disrupted smooth operations. The CAC revealed it receives approximately 3,000 complaint emails daily and has requested Treasury approval for an alternative payment channel to ensure service continuity during REMITA downtimes.
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Looking ahead, the commission stated that a fee adjustment, initially announced in June, is set to take effect on August 1. These adjusted fees are intended to fund further technological improvements and ensure the sustained optimization of the ICRP. The CAC reiterated its dedication to integrating stakeholder feedback to refine user experience and deliver a resilient, customer-focused system.
