Business name annual returns by 30 June
When a Nigerian business name owner must file the CAC annual return, the January-to-December statement that goes with it, who signs, and the fees.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
Registering a business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission feels like the end of the paperwork. You have the certificate, the bank account is open, and customers are paying. But a registered business name comes with a yearly obligation that many sole traders and partnerships never hear about until a penalty notice arrives: the annual return.
The rule is set out in the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020, and it applies to every registered business name, however small. This article explains the deadline, the statement that must go with the return, who signs it, where CAC's online filing stands, and what it costs to file on time or late.
By 30 June each year, except the year of registration
Section 822 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 requires every individual, firm or corporation carrying on business under a registered business name to deliver an annual return to the Corporate Affairs Commission not later than 30 June each year. The one exception is the calendar year in which the name was registered.
So a name registered in March this year has no annual return due this year, but its first return falls due by 30 June next year. Put that date in the diary on the day the certificate arrives, because nobody will remind you a year later. The return form is CAC/BN 06 in the Companies Regulations 2021.
CAC hosts a full version of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 on its portal; section 822 is the provision to read for the exact wording of the duty.
The statement for January to December of the year before
The return does not go in on its own. Section 822 requires it to be accompanied by the business's financial statement for the preceding 1 January to 31 December.
Notice that this is a calendar year, whatever year-end the business uses for anything else. A business name whose owner keeps books to a June year-end still needs a January-to-December statement for the CAC return. The return filed by 30 June this year covers the year that ended on the last 31 December.
Who signs
Section 822(3) sets out who signs the return. Where the business name belongs to individuals, they sign it themselves. Where the owner is a corporation, it is signed by a director and the secretary of that corporation.
For a partnership trading under a business name, that means each partner signs. Leave time for that: a partner who is travelling can hold up a return that is otherwise ready.
Names registered before and after July 2025
CAC's online portal, the iCRP, has been changing, and the date a name was registered now matters. A public notice on the iCRP home page says filing of annual returns is now available for all business names registered before July 2025. The notice does not say the same for names registered later.
The same home page says a new AI-powered annual returns process for business names will be introduced soon, so that annual returns of business names created both before and after July 2025 can be processed and approved automatically. CAC gives no date for "soon". If your name was registered after July 2025 and you cannot yet file online, keep a record of your attempts and check the portal regularly, so you can show you tried to meet the deadline.
The filing fee and the late penalty
The Companies Regulations 2021 set the CAC fee for a business name's annual returns, and other post-registration and miscellaneous filings, at ₦3,000 each. The penalty schedule in the same regulations sets a daily default penalty of ₦150 and a one-off penalty of ₦5,000 for a business name. Section 822(4) of the Act makes owners who fail to file liable to the penalty and daily default penalty the regulations prescribe.
The regulations' cover is dated December 2020, so check CAC's current fees and penalties before you pay. The daily element is the one that grows: a return that is months late carries a daily default penalty for every one of those days, on top of the one-off amount. How late penalties build up is covered in what a late CAC annual return costs.
Producing the January-to-December figures from your books
The statement is easier to produce if the books are already in order. In Achekam, management accounts show an income statement for a chosen period beside the period before, and a balance sheet at period end, both added up from the business's own journals. They export as PDF or CSV.
For the CAC return, the timing works in your favour: Achekam's year-to-date preset starts on 1 January, which is exactly the period CAMA asks for. Run the income statement for 1 January to 31 December of last year, and the balance sheet at 31 December, and you have the core figures with last year's comparison beside them.
There is a limit to know about: the books do not produce a cash flow statement. If you or your accountant want one in the financial statement, it has to be prepared separately.
Before 30 June
- Confirm the year of registration and whether a return is due this year.
- Close last year's books to 31 December and export the income statement and balance sheet.
- Have the statement reviewed, by your accountant if you use one.
- Check whether the iCRP lets you file for your name's registration date.
- Gather the signatures of every proprietor, or a director and the secretary.
- File and pay the fee before 30 June.
The same January-to-December figures feed your own tax affairs as the owner, covered in filing your own personal tax return as an owner. Close the books for last year now, and the CAC return becomes a matter of an afternoon rather than a scramble in late June.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
