How to register your business for N5,000 (Cont’d)

BY OREDOLA IBRAHIM

The
first part of this registration process can be found
here.^[1]

Oh! Yeah, congratulations, your name reservation request has
been approved! You are now ready to go to the NEXT LEVEL – where
you make the payment for your business name and claim it as your
own. Unfortunately, if you get the mail that your name reservation
request has been disapproved instead, you need to go back to STEP 4
and edit your name.

If you are re-editing your name, do take note that it is like
you are doing it all over again, so you have to pay your name
reservation fee of N500 again and this applies every time your name
gets disapproved.

However, you can reduce the chances of getting your name
disapproved by NOT going for names that are capable of misleading
as to the nature and extent of its activities; undesirable,
offensive or contrary to public policy; identical with or similar
to the name of a registered company unless the registered company
is in the course of dissolution and consents in writing of the
directors obtained; contain the phrase “Chamber of Commerce” unless
it is a company limited by guarantee; would violate any existing
trademark or business name unless with the consent of the trademark
or business name owner; and/or would violate any incorporated
trustee unless with consent of the trustees.

Now that your name reservation request has been approved, it is
time to go to the NEXT LEVEL.

STEP 8

Log in to your dashboard with your username and password. Once
you are logged in to your dashboard, you will see a box tagged
“Reserved”, there you will see and download your “Approval
Notice”.

STEP 9

On the menu, click on “Company Registration”, you’ll see a
drop-down, click on “New Registration”.

STEP 10

Here, you will see a notice that states “Kindly note that by
starting registration as a public user, you agree to become a
director, proprietor or trustee as the case may be.” what that
simply means is that you can only register a business for yourself
with your account.

If you must help someone register their business then you have
to (create an account in their name) do it with their account.
Next, it will ask for your “Availability Code”. Go back to the
approval notice you downloaded in STEP 8, there you will see the
code. It is a number, all you have to do is copy and paste it in
the field here.

STEP 11
It takes you directly to where you fill out further details about
your proposed business. This step is similar to what we went
through under STEP 4.

STEP 12
COMPANY DETAILS Section

Under this you will see “CLASSIFICATION”, select ‘Business name’
in the drop down.

You will also see “BUSINESS COMMENCEMENT DATE”, pick the date
from the calendar

And lastly you will see “ADDRESS”, confirm it is correct.

Then you need to save and proceed to the next section.

STEP 13
NATURE OF BUSINESS Section

You will see a drop-down. It is a list of business sectors. So,
you will choose the one that most applies to your business.

You will see a field beneath it, you can input a word or two
that explains your business e.g Information and Communication.

However, if you are the type of businessman that just ‘hustles’
everything together, you can choose and input “General Contract and
Merchandise”.

When you are done with this section, save and proceed to the
next section.

STEP 14
PROPRIETORS Section

Here your details is already there since the owner of the
account is automatically a proprietor of the business. However, if
you do have a partner, you can go ahead and add them as a
proprietor. You’ll see “Add A Proprietor” then proceed to fill up
their details like Name, Telephone, Email, Gender, Date of Birth,
Contact Address and a means of identification just like in STEP
6.

STEP 15
CERTIFIED TRUE COPIES Section

Here is where you choose if you want more than a copy of the
Business Name Registration certificates and of course you pay 5,000
Naira for every additional copy. So, I think you should just leave
the section and not fill anything. Just proceed through to the
final section where you will have to pay N5,000 through REMITA.

STEP 16
Once your payment is successful. Login back to your dashboard.
Under “Company Registration” you will see your Business name under
“Pending Approval”. Click it. That brings you to the “My
registration section” and opposite your name, you will see
“Documents”, click on it.

STEP 17
From the step above, you will be taken to the page where you will
download the file named “Application Form for Business Name”. The
form has already been filled with your details. You just have to do
three things after printing it out:

Affix your passport
Sign the document
There’s a space for “Commission for Oaths” to sign. Take it to the
any court nearby or a justice of peace and get it signed for
between 300 to 1,000 Naira depending on where you are.

STEP 18
Once you have completed the form, you will be required to scan it
back in one pdf and upload at the “Document Upload Service” where
you can get to from “Company Registration” menu.

STEP 19
At the “Document Upload Service” page, you will be requested to
enter your “Availability Code”, the same one we used in STEP 10.
Then select your “Originating Office” where you’d like to collect
your certificate when it’s ready. Complete the robot check and
click on “Begin”.

STEP 20
Now you will be taken to where you will be able to upload all the
required documents. The documents you will be uploading are the
following: a. Business Name Registration Form that you filled and
scanned b. The Approval Notice you downloaded in STEP 8 c. The
payment receipts for the N500 and the N5,000 d. Your means of
identification. You upload in the following order:

First you browse to select the document
Choose the document type
Click “Attach”
And you will do that for each of the documents.

After you are done with the step above, you should get a mail in
less than 48 hours that your business has been registered! And you
can proceed to the CAC office address (you specified earlier while
registering) with the hardcopy printouts of all the documents you
uploaded in STEP 20. All you have to do is tender those documents
and you will be given your Business Name Certificate.

Congratulations! You are now a proud owner of a new business…. I
mean, it is your turn to move to the NEXT LEVEL. If you have any
question, please feel free to use the comment, I will respond to
all your questions.

Ọ̀rẹ́dọlá Ibrahim is the CEO of SkillNG and
can be reached via
ibrahimoredola@gmail.com