Starting a business in Nigeria involves more than one registration. Here is the order that makes the rest easier.
Step 1: register the business itself with the CAC
Everything else on this list assumes you already have CAC paperwork: a certificate, an RC or BN number, and a status report you can produce on request. What an RC number actually is is worth reading if you're not sure what document you'll be working from.
CAC's own fees changed on 1 Oct 2025, so if you registered before then, don't assume today's cost still matches what you paid. You can start a company registration directly when you're ready for this step.
Step 2: get your Tax ID sorted
From 1 Jan 2026, a Tax ID has done the job the old TIN used to do. For an individual, it's linked to your NIN. For a business, it comes from its CAC registration number.
The Tax ID is issued by the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), formerly FIRS, together with the Joint Revenue Board. Look yours up at taxid.nrs.gov.ng rather than assuming an old TIN still works everywhere.
Step 3: check whether SCUML applies to you
SCUML registration only applies if your trade sits on a specific list. Car dealers, hotels and hospitality businesses, casinos and pools betting, consultants, jewellers, precious-metal dealers, real estate dealers and agents, lawyers and notaries, accountants, tax consultants, supermarkets, mortgage brokers and trust and company service providers, among other sectors Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 names directly.
If you're on that list, registering costs nothing: Free of charge. Our full guide on who needs to register covers the list in more detail, and the registration steps walk through the process itself.
Step 4: check whether NDPC applies to you
NDPC registration turns on a different test: how much personal data you handle. If your business processes personal data of more than 200 people in six months, or sits in a sector NDPC treats as higher-risk regardless of size, registration applies to you.
Many new, small businesses fall under this line in their first year and grow into it later as their customer base expands. Our guide to that test helps you check where you stand now, and worth rechecking as you grow. Registration itself happens at services.ndpc.gov.ng.
Step 5: build a simple compliance calendar
Once you know which of these apply to you, the harder part is not forgetting them a year later. CAC annual returns, NDPC's yearly filings and any sector licence all run on their own clocks, not a shared one.
A simple list with each agency's yearly date, checked monthly, catches most lapses before they turn into penalties. Our compliance calendar tool is built for exactly this, and the government fees tool helps you budget for what each step actually costs.
Common mistakes
- Registering with SCUML or NDPC before finishing CAC registration. Both later steps reference your CAC documents, so get those first.
- Assuming SCUML or NDPC applies to everyone. Both are conditional. Check the actual tests before registering, or before assuming you can skip them.
- Losing track of the Tax ID after the initial lookup. Save it somewhere permanent; you'll need it again for banking and contracts.
- Treating year one as the only year that matters. NDPC's threshold and your SCUML sector status are both worth rechecking as the business grows.
Where to go from here
This checklist covers the regulators outside Docufy's own filings. For the CAC annual return that follows a year after incorporation, see the CAC annual returns hub. For the rest of the regulators covered here, browse the SME regulators hub.