CAC Threatens to Delist 100,000 Companies Over Non-Compliance

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has announced plans to strike off 100,000 companies from its official register due to long-standing inactivity and failure to comply with statutory obligations under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020.

The Commission, in a public notice, revealed that the affected companies were flagged for not conducting business, remaining inactive for over a decade, or consistently defaulting on regulatory requirements such as the annual filing of returns and the disclosure of Persons with Significant Control (PSC).

“This exercise is aimed at sanitising the corporate registry and ensuring that only active, law-abiding entities remain listed,” the CAC stated. It further noted that the move aligns with Nigeria’s broader commitment to improving transparency in corporate governance and meeting anti-money laundering standards.

To avoid being struck off, the CAC has given a 90-day window from the date of the notice for the listed companies to bring their records up to date by filing outstanding returns and, where necessary, sending activation emails to activation@cac.gov.ng.

“It shall be unlawful for any company struck off the Register of Companies to continue carrying on business unless it is restored by an order of the Federal High Court,” the Commission warned.

It also recalled a similar exercise from July last year, which led to the delisting of several non-compliant companies in November. At the time, the Commission issued a statutory 90-day notice of its intention to delist firms that had failed to file returns for ten years, invoking Section 692(4) of CAMA.

“Companies stricken off the register are deemed to have been dissolved from the date of publication. It is illegal to enter into any transaction or deal with a company that has been dissolved,” the CAC reiterated.