🇳🇬 Nigeria

Overview

AiPrise verifies Nigerian businesses against the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) register. A business verification returns the company profile, directors, shareholders, persons with significant control and the company secretary, as filed with the CAC.

Coverage

Data point	Returned	Note
Company profile	Yes	Legal name, legal form, status, registration date; registered address for about 1 in 3 companies
Directors and legal representatives	Yes	About 3 in 4 companies; business names have proprietors instead
Shareholders	Yes	About 7 in 10 companies
Persons with significant control	Yes, when filed	From the CAC filing; not available for every company
Company secretary	Yes, when filed
Ultimate beneficial owners	No	Use persons with significant control
Tax ID (TIN) check	Yes	Separate check of the Tax Identification Number

Document	Returned
Register documents	No

Speed

Step	Typical	9 in 10 within
Business verification (company data, directors, shareholders)	7 seconds	23 seconds

These are typical times from production, not a service-level commitment: set timeouts well above them, or use callbacks.

Company types

Companies and business names are covered. What comes back depends on the type.

Company type	Legal forms	Covered	What to expect
Company	`company`, `PRIVATE COMPANY LIMITED BY SHARES`, `limited company`	Yes	Profile, directors, shareholders; secretary and significant controllers when filed
Business name (sole trader or partnership)	`business name`, `BUSINESS NAME`, `BUSINESS NAME FIRM`, `business`	Yes	Profile; proprietors for about 1 in 3
Limited liability partnership	`limited liability partnership`	Yes	Profile; partners for about 6 in 10, returned as directors and shareholders

Sources

Register	What it gives
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)	Company profile, directors, shareholders, persons with significant control, secretary
Tax register	TIN check

Identifiers

Send the CAC number as business_entity_id, with country_code set to NG.

Identifier	Format	Example
CAC number	Type prefix, a dash and the number. `RC` for companies, `BN` for business names, `IT` for incorporated trustees, `LP` or `LLP` for partnerships.	`RC-1234567` or `BN-1234567`
Tax Identification Number (TIN)	8 digits, a dash and 4 digits, or 13 digits. Used only for the TIN check.	`12345678-0001`

Statuses and legal forms

Every result carries the register's own status in registration_info.status and an AiPrise status in registration_info.normalised_status. The normalised status is one of Active, Suspended, Dormant, Dissolved / Struck Off, In Liquidation / Insolvency or Unknown.

Register status	Normalised status
ACTIVE	Active
Verified	Active
INACTIVE	Dormant
STRUCK OFF	Dissolved / Struck Off
REMOVED	Dissolved / Struck Off

Legal forms come back in entity_type as the register writes them, in mixed case, for example PRIVATE COMPANY LIMITED BY SHARES, company and business name.

Quirks and gotchas

Country-specific behaviour to know before you integrate.

Quirk	Details
Send the type prefix	Keep the prefix (`RC`, `BN`, `IT`, `LP`, `LLP`) and the dash in `business_entity_id`. A bare number does not say which register to search.
Legal forms in several spellings	The same legal form can come back as `company`, `limited company` or `PRIVATE COMPANY LIMITED BY SHARES`. Compare them case-insensitively.
Business names have proprietors, not directors	Business names (`BN`) have no directors or shareholders. Their owners come back as proprietors for about 1 in 3 of them.
Inactive companies	About 1 in 20 companies come back `INACTIVE`, which maps to `Dormant`. Check it before you approve.
Address often missing	The registered address comes back for about 1 in 3 companies. Collect a proof of address if you need one.

Limits

UBOs are not returned as such; persons with significant control are returned when filed.
Register documents are not available.
The TIN check confirms the tax number only; it does not return company data.