Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission has fully operationalised its Beneficial Ownership Register in a move aimed at exposing the ultimate individuals behind registered companies and strengthening transparency, anti-money laundering controls and investor due diligence.
The Registrar-General of the CAC, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, disclosed this in Abuja during activities marking the Commission’s 35th anniversary. The event highlighted the CAC’s transition from a manual, location-bound registry to a fully digital corporate regulator providing round-the-clock services globally to Nigeria’s estimated 250 million population.
Magaji stated that the register enables anyone to identify the real owners of companies operating in Nigeria, eliminating the anonymity often used to conceal illicit activity and corporate abuse.
“If you want to know the people behind any company in Nigeria, you just visit our Beneficial Ownership Register.
There is nowhere to hide,” Magaji said during activities marking the commission’s 35th anniversary.
He explained that the register forms part of broader reforms that have repositioned the CAC as Nigeria’s only fully digital, end-to-end government agency, delivering corporate services globally on a 24/7 basis.
According to him, the Beneficial Ownership Register has become a reference point for global transparency standards, supporting Know-Your-Customer requirements, financial crime prevention and cross-border investment checks.
The Beneficial Ownership Registry is a public database managed by the CAC to track the true owners of companies and legal entities. It is designed to enhance transparency and combat corruption, money laundering and illicit financial flows by revealing individuals who ultimately own, control or benefit from corporate structures, rather than merely listing nominal shareholders.
The registry identifies “persons with significant control,” defined as natural persons holding more than 25 per cent of shares, voting rights or significant influence in a company. It supports anti-corruption initiatives, tax enforcement and compliance with global transparency frameworks, including the Open Ownership Data Standard, which Nigeria adopted as the first country in Africa in 2024.
Established under the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, the registry mandates companies to submit beneficial ownership details during registration, annual returns or when changes occur. It was publicly launched on May 25, 2023, as the “Open Central Register of Persons with Significant Control.”
Companies are required to file PSC data, including names, addresses, national identification numbers and ownership details. The information is verified against national identity systems and updated annually to ensure accuracy and compliance.
