“Register In Under 30 Minutes”: New AI System To Automate Registration While Preserving Lawyers’ Role, Says CAC Reg-Gen

Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has unveiled a series of sweeping reforms designed to revolutionize business registration in Nigeria, including the launch of an AI-driven Intelligent Company Registration Portal (ICRP) and a call for content creators to formalize their businesses.

Speaking on Arise TV on Saturday, Magaji outlined how the CAC is aligning with President Bola Tinubu’s digitization agenda to improve security, financial inclusion, and ease of doing business.

Magaji announced the forthcoming Intelligent Company Registration Portal (ICRP), a fully automated, AI-powered system that will slash registration times from the current 48 hours to under 30 minutes by the end of 2025. “When I came on board, I discovered registration in Nigeria takes 48 hours, even beyond that… Now we are targeting business name or company registration in less than 30 minutes,” he said.

The ICRP, set to launch in the second quarter of 2025, will integrate with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to retrieve applicant data instantly via the National Identification Number (NIN) and offer name suggestions to eliminate human delays. “This one is AI-embedded—no need for human beings. Once you make a request, the system will treat everything,” Magaji explained, noting it mirrors global best practices in the UK and US.

In addition to streamlining company registration, Magaji stressed the importance of formalizing Nigeria’s booming informal sector, including Point of Sale (POS) operators and content creators. He lamented that only 100,000 of an estimated 1.9 million POS operators had registered under the POS formalization project launched on July 7, 2024. “We don’t know who these people doing financial transactions are… Ransom has been paid through POS,” he warned, linking registration to national security and financial inclusion objectives.

To ease compliance, the CAC has partnered with fintech platforms like Opay and Moniepoint, allowing operators to register via APIs without visiting the CAC portal directly.

Magaji made a strong appeal to Nigerian content creators, urging them to register their brands as sole proprietors or business names to protect their intellectual property and foster accountability. “Social media has come to stay… Someone has a followership and earns millions of naira every day, and the economy is not benefiting,” he said. “When you have a name you are thriving with… if another person claims that name and does other things, security will start chasing you. But once you have yourself registered, it’s like you have secured that name.”

He emphasized that registration is more beneficial to creators than to the government, helping to prevent impersonation and misuse of brand names. “If someone commits a crime with that name, you’re safeguarded,” he stressed.

Responding to concerns from legal practitioners about being sidelined by the new AI system, Magaji offered reassurance. While the ICRP automates registration processes, lawyers will remain essential for post-registration services such as changing company names, altering directors, or amending business objectives.

“You’ll be cutting out the lawyers who make a lot of money from our activities… People have been doing this manually for a long period,” he acknowledged. However, he encouraged adaptation: “Our customers are more knowledgeable and technology-savvy. We must embrace change.”

Furthermore, the CAC’s Value Added Services (VAS) portal, another 2025 deliverable, will allow big fintech companies and law firms to integrate directly into CAC systems. “Big firms that have arrived technologically…can integrate into our portal,” he said, ensuring that lawyers and businesses stay relevant in the new ecosystem.

Magaji defended the CAC’s ongoing delisting of inactive companies as a crucial security measure. “If you allow a company that is inactive, bad elements will utilize these dormant companies to perpetrate crime… We de-register them to protect the system,” he explained. Despite economic pressures, he assured that fees such as the N500 name availability check—static for over a decade—remain unchanged to encourage widespread registration.

Driven by a performance contract with Minister Jumoke Oduwole at the Ministry of Industry and Investment, Magaji’s reforms aim to register three million businesses—including MSMEs—at discounted rates through partnerships with youth organizations and government agencies.

“This is a serious government… If they give you an assignment, you must deliver,” he said, portraying pressure as a motivator rather than a challenge.