The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has opened a portal for people to search company or business name before registration.

Acting Register-General of CAC Azuka Azinge revealed this on Wednesday in Lagos at the Quarterly Stakeholders’ Forum of the Commission.

According to Azinge, the move is to make registration of businesses easier, revealing that businesses can now be registered within six hours.

“The Commission will leave no stone unturned towards simplifying the process of registration and other services,” the CAC boss said.

“At the moment, any member of the public can do it himself/herself by visiting the Commission’s website: services.cac.gov.ng.

“Similarly, any member of the public wishing to confirm the legal status of Nigerian companies can visit the Commission’s public search: publicsearch.cac.gov.ng.”

The CAC boss stated that, “The Commission in line with its statutory mandate has deliberately embarked upon several reform initiatives aimed at easing business registration in Nigeria.

“This explains the Commission’s strategic policies like decentralization of its operations, deployment of the Company Registration Portal (CRP) and the integration of the CRP to the Stamp Duty Portal of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) to further ease the process of company registration.

“The goal is to ensure that every Nigerian has access to online registration especially the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to enable more businesses to come into the formal sector with all the attendant benefits.

“This is in tandem with the reform agenda of the Federal Government aimed, among other things, at growing the Nigerian economy. through increased economic activities, employment creation, provision of infrastructure and making Nigeria one of the world’s top investment destinations.”