So on the 7th of July, users of the CAC Company Registration Portal - CPR - woke up to a new look on the portal interface, as well as an upgrade in the registration process and experience.

Let’s go back to how it started. Prior to that date, the CAC announced that it had unveiled its artificial intelligence (AI) -powered business registration portal to speed up the business registration process in Nigeria, which is part of the Commission’s transformative initiative. It was announced by the Registrar-General of the CAC, Malam Hussaini Magaji, at the 2025 Stakeholders Forum held in Port-Harcourt.

According to the RG, the upgraded portal marks a complete overhaul of the CRP, with advanced features designed to simplify and speed up business registration.

The long and short of the whole upgrade process is that:

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  The initiative is part of a broader reform agenda aimed at overhauling the existing CRP to enhance ease of doing business in Nigeria.

  
  

  SO HERE ARE THE AI-POWERED FEATURES OF THE INTELLIGENT COMPANY REGISTRATION ICPR:

  • 1.) Generally, the CPR interface wears a new look as to arrangement, including a colour alteration

  • 2.) There are new security layers, including a two-factor authentication and OTP verification, to prevent unauthorised access to company records. Previously, a username and password login grants access without more.

  • 3.) The new AI-powered system could suggest available alternatives to business name reservation and give instant approvals. Now this is a classic departure from before as name choices are entered manually and approval alone could take as long as 3 days to 1 month with an Approving Officer

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    

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    4.) An ambitious target of completing business registration and certificate generation, - that is from name reservation to certificate issuance - within 30 minutes, subject to real-time NIN validation

  • 5.) Introduction of an AI-powered photo ID matching feature.

  • 6.) You can be logged in for several hours at a time unlike before where you’re logged out after a few minutes.

  • 7.) Registration website address is now https://icrp.cac.gov.ng/ as against cac.gov.ng

  For FUTURE UPGRADES

  • The CAC is also reviewing over 100 partnership requests from Super Agents, both domestic and international, including entities like the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). This aligns with the Commission’s vision to extend its reach and simplify access to corporate services.

  • There is also an ongoing plan to unveil a mobile app in the fourth quarter of 2025 to enable business owners manage and track their registrations on the go.

  PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED - USER EXPERIENCE

  Of course with such upgrades come the difficulties of having to navigate the new terrain. A few users have expressed frustrations after attempting to use the new features.

  So based on user experience, these are the ISSUES ARISING: 

  1. AI system approval of clearly inappropriate names

  2. AI availability/name approval of an existing registered entity

  3. Deliberate attempts to discredit the ongoing digital reforms through manipulation by submitting provocative names

  4. There is lack of human review which renders the system unintelligent, inaccurate and highly inefficient

  5. The system lacks the requisite understanding to detect misleading or offensive names which are clearly prohibited under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA 2020

  6. The upgrade has complicated previously unresolved issues including users’ inaccessibility to, or a logging off from, the portal.

     
     Irrespective of the difficulties experienced, the upgrade is a welcome development. In this age of rapid AI movement, the CAC will be in a vantage position to capture its users and the public with seamless and fast-paced services. It is hoped though, that in the shortest possible time the lapses seen in this beta trial will be addressed and changes effected.

     
     

  Amidst the problems encountered, a number of users and enthusiasts have shared a few OPINIONS/SUGGESTIONS to the CAC:

  1.) Improve on the old registration platform, then spend quality time to build the ICPR 

  2.) Encourage internal and external teams to test-run the site in phases and detect issues, examine critical missing link errors and realign the ICRP appropriately before deploying

  3.) By reason of the AI’s poor contextual reasoning there is need for improvement in terms of having human oversight

  4.) Technically, test-run phases are run for between 6months-1 year.

  In all of this, there is reassurance from the CAC that:

  1.) The ICRP is still undergoing improvements and public feedback is vital to its development; and that

  2.) Despite the inaccuracies currently being experienced, it remains committed to enhancing regulatory efficiency and promoting ease of doing business.

  ADDENDUM

  This new move marks a significant milestone in Nigeria’s digital transformation journey for corporate services.