Abuja: The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has announced that its Artificial Intelligence (AI) business registration portal is now handling over 11,000 transactions daily, even as it navigates certain operational challenges.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the CAC issued a statement on Sunday highlighting its efforts to resolve identity verification and payment issues that are affecting the seamless operation of the portal.
The AI system, which was launched on June 30, is designed to issue registration certificates within 30 minutes once a director's National Identification Number (NIN) is verified. This new system allows users to experiment with multiple business names without requiring upfront payments, thereby reducing start-up costs and eliminating repeated name search fees.
According to the commission, approximately 8,000 name reservations were processed in a single day-a task that previously took nearly two weeks using the old manual system. "You can't compare AI with humans for service delivery. We now handle over 11,000 cases daily," the statement read. Last Friday, 8,000 name reservation requests were processed on the same day, a feat that would have taken two weeks manually. However, the commission is currently receiving at least 3,000 complaint emails daily, underscoring the necessity of automation through intelligence.
The CAC noted that recent slowdowns in the portal's performance are primarily due to issues with external partners. The National Identity Management Commission's (NIMC) verification portal has been offline for weeks, hindering automatic NIN confirmation. Additionally, intermittent timeouts on REMITA, the government's payment gateway, have disrupted fee collection processes. The CAC has requested Treasury approval for an alternative payment channel to ensure continuity during REMITA downtimes and mentioned that stamp duty remittances are paused whenever the ProTax platform experiences outages.
Security measures have been enhanced with the implementation of one-time passwords for every transaction, preventing unauthorized filings but also raising concerns among registration agents. The commission is gradually deploying software updates to restore annual return and post-incorporation services affected by the AI migration. It confirmed that fee adjustments announced in June will take effect on August 1 to fund further technology improvements.
A dedicated help desk portal is now managing around 3,000 emails daily, with user feedback contributing to refining the user experience. The CAC expressed optimism that supporting infrastructure would stabilize soon, providing faster, more affordable, and secure registration services for investors.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that some lawyers, acting as registration agents, have expressed frustration with the portal's accessibility issues, which have persisted for weeks. These issues are preventing name searches, business registrations, and the filing of post-incorporation documents and annual returns, potentially deterring investors and raising broader concerns about Nigeria's ease of doing business.