Incorporated trustees reserve a name before they can register at all, the same way a company does. The fee for that early step is exactly where the two structures start to differ.
Why incorporated trustees reserve a name first
CAC will not ever accept a registration application until it has reserved the proposed name. This stops two organisations registering under names too close to confuse.
The reservation step also gives CAC a chance to flag a restricted word or an obvious clash before you commit to the fuller registration fee. Catching a problem here is far cheaper than discovering it after the full application is submitted.
Trustee boards sometimes skip straight to drafting a constitution before checking the name at all. Reserve the name first, so the rest of the paperwork is not built around a name CAC later refuses.
The fee, higher than a standard reservation
Incorporated trustees pay ₦5,000 to reserve a name. A company or a business name pays ₦1,000 for the same kind of reservation.
CAC's published schedule does not explain the gap between the two figures. It simply lists them separately, and the higher one applies to incorporated trustees specifically.
A company limited by guarantee, despite also suiting non-profit work, reserves its name at the standard fee. See incorporated trustees vs guarantee company for that comparison in full.
How long the reservation holds
Once approved, the reservation holds for up to 60 days. That is the same window CAC gives any applicant, whatever structure they are registering.
Use the time to gather the rest of your documents. See documents to register a church with CAC for what a faith-based or community application typically needs.
Do not treat the window as a soft deadline. A board that leaves the paperwork until the final week sometimes finds a trustee is travelling or a signature is missing, right when time has almost run out.
What happens if the name is not available
If CAC refuses the name, this article cannot confirm that the reservation fee is refunded. Budget to pay it again to reserve a different one.
Search the public register yourself before you apply, the same way a company or business name applicant would. It costs nothing, and it can save a second ₦5,000 payment on a name that was always going to clash with an existing one.
Moving on to registration once it clears
Once your name is reserved, registration itself follows for ₦40,000, on top of what you already paid to reserve it. See how to register incorporated trustees for that process from here.
Browse the CAC registration hub for more on registering a non-profit body, or our cost guide to registering a company for how these fees compare with other structures.