A company does not pick its own annual return date. CAMA sets the rule, and the date follows a meeting, not the calendar.
The once-a-year rule
Every company must deliver an annual return to the Corporate Affairs Commission at least once in every year. This applies whether the company traded heavily, sat idle, or barely used its bank account that year.
Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA 2020) is the law behind the duty. The return proves the register is accurate: who the directors are, where the company sits, and who holds its shares. It is not a report on how business went.
Skip a year and it does not disappear from the record. It stays outstanding, with its own penalty attached, until filed. Our guide to what happens if you don't file sets out what that costs.
Why the date moves: the AGM link
The return is due within 42 days after the annual general meeting. That single line hides the real detail: the clock starts at the annual general meeting, not on a fixed date like 31 March.
A company whose AGM falls in February files earlier in the year than one whose AGM falls in November. Two companies incorporated the same week can end up with different due dates once their meeting calendars diverge.
The return itself is prepared on Form CAC 19 and delivered within that window, signed by a director and the company secretary. If the AGM runs late, the filing deadline slides with it.
Small companies and single-shareholder companies work differently
Small companies and companies with a single shareholder are not required to hold an annual general meeting at all. Without an AGM, the usual "42 days after" rule has no meeting to count from.
That does not excuse these companies from filing. They still owe a return at least once in every year, just without the fixed trigger that gives everyone else an exact day. Check the portal's own filing window instead of working out a date by hand.
What actually slips the deadline
A handful of habits push companies past their real due date:
- Treating the annual return as a fixed calendar date, the way a tax return works.
- Letting the AGM run late, then forgetting the return depends on it.
- Assuming "once a year" means "within 12 months of last year's filing", rather than tied to that year's meeting.
None of these looks serious on its own. Together, they explain why a missed return often surfaces only when a bank or a tender desk asks for proof that the company is in good standing.
Where to check your own date
Guessing is the slow way to find out. The CAC public search on icrp.cac.gov.ng shows the company's actual filing history, which tells you more than working backward from an AGM date you half remember.
If the search shows you are behind, our guide to catching up on missed years covers the order to file in. If the company is newly incorporated, read when your first annual return falls due, since the first year follows its own rule.
Once you know your date, you can start your CAC annual return ahead of it rather than after. Keep every certificate's deadline, not just this one, on the compliance calendar, and see the CAC annual returns hub for the rest of this series.