CAC Purges 400,000 Shell Firms, Cleans Up Corporate Register In 2025

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has deregistered more than 400,000 inactive companies in 2025, marking one of the most sweeping clean-ups of Nigeria’s corporate registry in recent years.

Registrar-General of the CAC, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, SAN, disclosed this on Saturday in Abuja during the Commission’s monthly fitness walk, an event held to commemorate its 35th anniversary.

Magaji said the affected entities had largely failed to file statutory annual returns and were no longer operational, making them potential conduits for economic abuse and opacity. “In 2025 alone, we deregistered over 400,000 companies from our records.

These were largely shell companies that had become inactive and failed to meet statutory obligations, including filing annual returns. Such entities pose threats to economic operations, so we had to clean up the register,” he said.

According to him, maintaining a credible, current and transparent companies register is critical to strengthening investor confidence and safeguarding Nigeria’s business environment.

The Registrar-General described the anniversary walk as symbolic of the Commission’s transformation over the last three and a half decades, noting its evolution from a manual, office-based institution into a fully digital organisation.

“CAC has come a long way, from manual operations confined to a single office to a fully digital organisation providing services globally. Today, our services are accessible anywhere, anytime, 24/7,” Magaji said.

He added that the Commission now delivers services to millions of Nigerians and businesses without the need for physical visits, in line with the Federal Government’s ease-of-doing-business agenda.

Magaji also highlighted CAC’s partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), through which 250,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) were registered free of charge in 2025.