A rise of a couple of thousand naira sounds small until it lands on thousands of business names renewing at once, all in the same filing season. Here is what changed, when it took effect, and where the money is paid now.
The fee before and after
Under the old Companies Regulations 2021 schedule, a business name's annual return cost ₦3,000. Official Gazette No. 92 of 29 May 2025 raised that to ₦5,000.
That is not a small change in percentage terms. It is a jump on a filing many proprietors budget for out of habit, without checking the current rate first, year after year.
When the rise actually took effect
The new fee did not start the moment the schedule was gazetted. 1 Oct 2025 is when it actually began, after CAC pushed the date back twice while it stabilised its new registration portal.
Anyone quoting the old ₦3,000 figure today is working from an outdated schedule, not a discount.
Company annual returns rose in the same schedule, though by a different amount depending on share capital. See the fee by share capital if you also run a limited company alongside the business name.
Where the fee is paid now
Payment has moved too. Directly on the iCRP portal, since 6 May 2026. Before that notice, proprietors paid through a separate step outside the main filing screen.
This is worth knowing if an old note or an older guide describes a different payment route. The portal now handles the filing and the payment together, in one visit rather than two separate ones.
Why the rise catches proprietors off guard
A business name often runs for years without its owner thinking much about CAC beyond the original registration. The annual return is a small, routine bill, easy to misremember between one filing and the next.
Proprietors who last filed before October 2025 and expect the same amount next time are the ones most likely to be caught out, especially while catching up on more than one missed year at the old rate in their head. Someone running two or three business names under their own name feels the rise once per name, not once in total.
What to check before you file
Confirm the current figure on the portal before you pay, rather than trusting an old receipt, a friend's memory, or an older article. Figures move: this one already has, alongside the business name penalty, which changed in the same schedule.
For the deadline itself and who must file, see the business name annual return deadline. For the full annual-return picture, including company fees alongside business-name fees, see the CAC annual return cost guide, and browse the CAC annual returns hub for the rest of this series.