The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has officially announced that it deregistered 400,000 companies throughout 2025.
This sweeping regulatory action, confirmed by the Registrar-General, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji (SAN), marks one of the most extensive “clean-up” exercises in the Commission’s 35-year history.
The CAC explained the reason behind the mass delisting is to purge the national database of dormant entities and “shell companies” that have failed to meet their statutory obligations.
The agency added that it deregistered over 400,000 companies in 2025 due to the failure of these entities to file annual returns, which is a mandatory requirement under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020.
According to the CAC, maintaining an accurate registry is vital for eliminating “paper companies” used for fraudulent contracts or money laundering.
The agency also added that the move is to ensure that foreign and local investors have access to a “source of truth” regarding active businesses.
This was disclosed by the Registrar-General of the commission, Mr Hussaini Magaji, during activities marking CAC’s 35th anniversary in Abuja.
“In 2025 alone, the commission de-registered over 400,000 companies, in a bid to clean up its database from inactive and non-compliant entities,” he said.
He added that the action was aimed at ensuring transparency and credibility in Nigeria’s business environment.
On support for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the CAC boss disclosed that the commission facilitated free business registrations for 250,000 entrepreneurs in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
He described the initiative as part of CAC’s intervention to reduce the cost of business formalisation and encourage small businesses to operate within the regulated economy.
According to him, the programme is designed to ease entry barriers for small businesses and expand participation in the formal sector.
As part of CAC’s broader effort to sanitise Nigeria’s corporate registry and ensure that only active and compliant entities remain in the system, it had earlier announced plans to delist 100,000 companies from its register over prolonged inactivity and failure to comply with statutory requirements under the Companies and Allied Matters Act.
According to a public notice issued by the commission at the time, the affected companies were identified as entities that had either stopped carrying on business, remained inactive for at least 10 years, or failed to meet key regulatory obligations, particularly the filing of annual returns and disclosure of Persons with Significant Control.
The CAC gave the affected companies a 90-day window from the date of publication to regularise their status by filing all outstanding annual returns and, where applicable, sending activation emails to [email protected]
