BREAKING: Nigeria's Corporate Clean-Up – CAC Purges 400,000 "Ghost Companies"

BREAKING: Nigeria's Corporate Clean-Up – CAC Purges 400,000 "Ghost Companies" in Historic 2025 Deregistration Drive

Abuja, Nigeria – In the most aggressive corporate sanitization exercise in Nigeria's history, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has deregistered over 400,000 inactive and non-compliant companies from its official register in 2025, the Commission's Registrar-General Hussaini Magaji disclosed this week.

The sweeping move targeted dormant entities that failed to file statutory annual returns for years—many existing only as "paper companies" with no operational footprint—effectively cleansing Nigeria's business registry of shell entities that had long distorted corporate data and undermined regulatory transparency. [[20]]

Why It Matters

"These were largely inactive companies that failed to file annual returns," Magaji explained during the Commission's 35th-anniversary commemoration in Abuja. "In 2025 alone, we deregistered over 400,000 companies from our records."

The deregistration campaign, executed in phases throughout the year, follows a 90-day grace period issued to non-compliant firms in mid-2025—giving businesses a final window to regularize their status before automatic strike-off. Companies affected can still apply for relisting by fulfilling outstanding compliance requirements, including payment of accumulated penalties and submission of pending annual returns.

A Cleaner Business Ecosystem

The mass delisting achieves three critical objectives:  

✓ Boosts investor confidence by ensuring Nigeria's corporate registry reflects only active, compliant businesses  

✓ Strengthens tax revenue tracking by eliminating phantom entities used for illicit financial flows  

✓ Streamlines regulatory oversight for genuine MSMEs and corporate entities operating legitimately

"This exercise reinforces our commitment to a transparent, accountable corporate environment," Magaji emphasized, noting the Commission will continue supporting legitimate small and medium enterprises while cracking down on non-compliance.

What Business Owners Must Know

Nigerian companies must file annual returns within 42 days after their annual general meeting—or face automatic deregistration. The CAC has intensified digital monitoring through its upgraded registry system, making evasion increasingly difficult.

— Reporting by Business Desk | Sources: CAC Public Statements, NAN 

#CAC #NigeriaBusiness #CorporateGovernance #RegulatoryCompliance