Guide in Choosing Proposed Limited Company Name in Nigeria

When I published "how to register a company in Nigeria", I briefly stated the suffixes you can use with your proposed company name while processing your company registration with CAC Nigeria. In this post, am sharing with you the suffixes that are not accepted by CAC as well as the exceptions.


i.    Corporate Affairs Commission does not accept names having such words & suffixes like "Incorporation", ''incorporated'', "Project", "Certified", "Group", "Consortium", "Holdings", "Authorized", "State", "Government", "Patent", "Commerce", "Copyright" "Conglomerate".

However, except in some special cases and ability to fulfill requirements of some other enabling Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Companies & Allied Matters Act, (CAMA), 1990, such words and suffixes like "Group", "Consortium", "Holdings" and ‘’Conglomerate’’ can be used to register companies.

Example: To register a company with names ending in HOLDINGS, GROUP, CONSORTIUM, you must have registered two or three other companies, which you now want to MERGE together into Groups (as in UBA Group) or Holdings (as in Nuel Ojei Holdings) or Consortium (as in Dandata Consortium).


ii.    Names which have Words and Suffixes like Consulting, Construction, Engineering, Medical, Pharmacy, Management, Financial, Accounting, School etc require that at least one Shareholder/Director/Partner provides a photocopy of his/her Educational/Professional/Training/Degree Certificate obtained from Universities, Polytechnic, Colleges of Education, Professional Memberships, Vocational Traning (BSc, BA, MSc, MA, MBA, MBBS, PhD) or Professional Bodies like (COREN, NIM, ICSA, MPA, NSE, ICAN, ANAN, ACA, CITN, etc.)

Companies in Nigeria do not end their naming with 'LLC, Incorporated, SA, GmBH, AG, and other foreign connotations'. You will therefore, be dissipating energy trying or thinking up an idea to replicate or model examples of such foreign companies like (Microsoft Incorporation as in US or Saticom LLC as in US, or R & D Holdings SA as in France or Vinton GmBH as in Germany or Accenture AG as in Switzerland) here in Nigeria.

Names of Limited companies in Nigeria are registered with ending suffixes like ‘’Limited’’ or ‘’Ltd’’ or ‘’Plc.’’.

iii.    However, there is a difference between ''Trading Name'' and ''Registered Name''.

You can trade or conduct your activities with ''LLC'' or even mute up ''Ltd' or ''Limited'' by using only catchy names like in Dangote, Ibeto, Honeywell, MTN, CoServi, Glo, Etisalat, Airtel, UBA, GTB, Paga, M-pesa, Microsoft, HP, KPMG, Delloitte, Accenture, Emergent, Facebook, Twitter, Honda, Toyota, CNN, Aljazeera, Gucci, Marks & Spencer, Ikea, Berkshire Hathaway, etc.

Again, you can also tailor your trading name according to what you do or the objects of your company such as Phillips Consulting, Frog Design, Tliblisi Trading, Sahad Freight Services, etc.

But note again, that this is different from the Registration/incorporation Name when it is involving a LIMITED COMPANY, where in Nigeria you MUST insert such suffixes like ''Limited'' or ''Ltd'' at the end of your choice Limited Company name for registration/incorporation.

Examples.

1. Nuel Ojei Nigeria Limited
2. Emerald Investment Ltd. 

There is an exception to this if it involves registering Business Names, which does not have its NAMES with suffixes such as ‘’Limited’’ nor ‘’Ltd’’.

I hope this info is enough to guide you in choosing the proposed names for your company registration to avoid been rejected by CAC.

This info was provided by Bar. Kasie, who is an experienced professional that works as a consultant to CAC Nigeria.

You can contact Bar. Kasie via:

Mobile: 08091921491.
BB: 21673ABE.
Whatsapp: 08095048689.
Address: B40 Ext. Efab, off Gimbiya St. Garki, Abuja. Nigeria.

Whenever you contact him, let him know you got his info from my blog; Ogbongeblog.

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