An annual general meeting is one of the first governance deadlines a new company forgets about, mostly because it feels far off on the day you register.
The deadline for a new company's first AGM
A newly registered company must hold its first AGM within 18 months of incorporation. That clock starts from the date of incorporation, not from your first full financial year.
That window sounds generous when your certificate is fresh. It arrives faster than most founders expect, especially once the first year gets busy with everything else a new company has to sort out.
Put the date in a shared calendar as soon as you register, not once the deadline is a few weeks away. A company with more than one director should agree the date together early on, rather than leaving it to whoever remembers first.
How later AGMs are spaced
After the first meeting, later AGMs follow a tighter rhythm than the first one did. CAC can extend the time before any AGM except the first, but that is a request you make, not something that happens automatically.
Diarise the date as soon as your first AGM is done, rather than waiting until the next one is close.
Small companies that need not hold one at all
Not every company holds an AGM. Small companies and companies with a single shareholder are excused from the duty entirely.
If your company fits that description, you can skip the meeting itself. That does not mean skipping everything else that comes with running a company, such as keeping proper records of major decisions even without a formal meeting to record them in.
Single-shareholder companies, the other exemption
A company with a single shareholder gets the same exemption as a small company. If you incorporated alone, this likely applies to you.
Check your own structure against the description above rather than assuming either way. The exemption depends on the facts of your company, not its size in a general sense, so a small company with several shareholders and a single-shareholder company both reach the same result by different routes.
What an exempt company still owes CAC
Skipping the AGM does not mean skipping the annual return. The return is filed at least once in every year, and that duty applies to every company, exempt from AGMs or not.
Gather the same director, shareholder and share capital details you would need anyway. Our guide to documents needed for a CAC annual return covers that list in full.
Whether or not your company holds an AGM, keep both deadlines, the meeting and the return, on the same calendar. You can start a CAC company registration if you have not yet registered.