A legal practitioner, Faisal Manir, Esq., has condemned the Corporate Affairs Commission for what he described as the unlawful imposition of additional charges on name reservation and company registration services following the 2026 Easter holiday.
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In a public notice issued on Monday, Manir stated that the new fees are unknown to law, ultra vires the powers of the Commission, and therefore null and void ab initio.
He called on the Registrar-General of the CAC, Ishaq Hussaini Magaji, SAN, to immediately suspend and permanently remove the charges, and urged the Nigerian Bar Association to intervene.
Manir stated that Nigerians woke up on April 7, 2026, to yet another arbitrary and unjustified increase in the cost of doing business.
“The Corporate Affairs Commission quietly introduced additional charges on name reservation services following the 2026 Easter holiday,” he stated.
The lawyer recalled that on May 29, 2025, the CAC increased the statutory fee for name reservation for companies and business names by 100%, raising it from N500 to N1,000, coinciding with the rollout of the iCRP 3.0 platform.
“This position is duly captured in the Gazette, as contained in the New Schedule of Fees for the Services of the Corporate Affairs Commission (Page 3, B625, Serial No. 1), which expressly stipulates that the approved fee for name reservation is N1,000,” Manir stated.
Manir emphasised that the gazetted fee represents the only lawful charge for name reservation.
“By virtue of the Gazette, that fee represents the only lawful charge for name reservation. Any additional or extraneous charge imposed outside the express provisions of the Gazette, whether described as a ‘service charge’ or otherwise, is unknown to law, ultra vires the powers of the Commission, and therefore unlawful, null, and void ab initio,” he stated.
“The Commission, being a creature of statute, cannot validly impose any fee not authorized by law or duly published in the Gazette.”
The lawyer specifically challenged the imposition of an additional N200 charge described as an “iCRP Service Charge for Name Reservation.”
“By the above extant legal framework, the prescribed fee for name reservation remains N1,000. The imposition of an additional N200 charge under the guise of an ‘iCRP Service Charge for Name Reservation’ is unknown to law, unsupported by any regulation, statutory instrument, or executive order, and amounts to an unlawful exaction on Nigerians and an abuse of regulatory authority,” Manir stated.
Manir further noted that an additional N500 “iCRP Service Charge for Business Name/Company Registration” is being imposed upon the payment of statutory registration fees.
“This charge is not contained in any enabling law, regulation, or approved Schedule of Fees issued by the Corporate Affairs Commission,” he stated.
“This unilateral imposition is ultra vires the powers of the Commission, unknown to law, and constitutes an unlawful and exploitative exaction on Nigerians. The CAC, being a statutory body, is bound strictly by the limits of its enabling law and cannot impose any fee not expressly authorized.”
The lawyer declared that the charges have no legal standing.
“Accordingly, this charge is null, void, and of no legal effect, and must be withdrawn immediately. Continued enforcement of such unlawful fees amounts to an abuse of regulatory authority and a violation of the rule of law,” Manir stated.
Manir questioned any justification that the new charges are for technological improvements.
“If the justification for these new charges is the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence into the registration process, one must ask: what then justified the earlier 100% increase in fees less than a year ago?” he asked.
The lawyer strongly condemned the CAC’s action.
“We strongly condemn this arbitrary action and view it as exploitative, burdensome, and detrimental to the ease of doing business in Nigeria,” Manir stated.
Manir called on the Registrar-General to take immediate action.
“Accordingly, we call on the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Ishaq Hussaini Magaji, SAN, to immediately suspend and permanently remove the said N200 and N500 charges from the iCRP platform, as they are illegal, unjustifiable, and oppressive,” he stated.
The lawyer also called on the Nigerian Bar Association to act.
“We also call on the Nigerian Bar Association, under the leadership of Afam Osigwe, SAN, to urgently intervene and ensure that this continued exploitation of Nigerians by a regulatory agency is brought to an end,” Manir stated.
Manir concluded by urging Nigerians not to remain silent.
“Nigerians must not remain silent in the face of unlawful administrative actions that erode trust, stifle enterprise, and undermine the rule of law,” he stated.
Manir’s legal challenge to the CAC’s new charges raises fundamental questions about the authority of regulatory agencies to impose fees not expressly authorised by law.
If his interpretation is correct — that only fees published in the official Gazette are lawful — then the additional N200 and N500 charges would indeed be ultra vires and unenforceable.
For businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to register companies or reserve business names, the new charges represent an additional cost burden:
- Name reservation: N1,000 (gazetted) + N200 (disputed) = N1,200 total
- Company/Business Name registration: Statutory fee + N500 (disputed)
These may seem like small amounts individually, but they add up across the thousands of registrations processed by the CAC annually.
The timing of the increase — introduced quietly after the Easter holiday — has also drawn criticism, with Manir describing it as an attempt to implement changes without proper notice or consultation.
For the CAC, the challenge is to demonstrate the legal basis for the new charges or withdraw them. The Commission has not yet responded to the allegations.
For the NBA, Manir’s call for intervention adds another matter to the association’s plate, even as it deals with its own internal disputes over the ECNBA constitution.
The outcome of this challenge could have implications for how other regulatory agencies impose fees and charges, and whether such impositions can be made outside the formal gazette process.
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