If you are reading this post, then you are either a young and passionate engineering graduate or undergraduate looking to setup an engineering/engineering construction company of your own sooner or later, OR an experienced engineer who has been into private engineering practice or working for individuals, but now wishes to be able to win bigger and better contracts with the Government, private/public organizations, institutions and corporate bodies, OR simply someone who is interested in knowing the nitty-gritties of incorporating an engineering company in Nigeria.
If you are any one of these people, then you are at the right place, and we highly recommend that you carefully read down to the end of the post.
What Is An Engineering Company And What Do They Do?
An engineering company ideally, is that which after due certification by the Corporate Affairs Commission and/or any other standards regulatory organization, is found capable of carrying out the business of engineering in all it's ramifications.
Furthermore, a registered engineering company could be allowed to operate either as a civil engineering company, mechanical engineering company, electrical engineering company, petrochemical engineering company, marine engineering company, etc, or some times as a company undertaking works from more than just one branch of engineering.
For fresh engineering graduates, college certificate/s is usually substantial for use in setting up an engineering company. But presently, engineering companies cannot be registered in Nigeria without provision of professional certificates, for e.g those offered by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN, established by decree 55 of 1970 and amended by decree 27 of 1992), The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), The Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering (NATE), and other relevant professional bodies for engineering regulation in Nigeria.
These professional certificates show professionalism on the part of the engineer, and therefore anyone who wishes to establish an engineering company that would be duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, should have any of these certificates.
1.) Business Name.
2.) Limited/Unlimited (Private/Public) Company.
3.) Incorporated Trustees.
An engineering company should be registered under the Limited /Unlimited (Private/Public) Company category. This is not an option, but a necessity. More explanations has been given about this category of companies in other posts.
However, some people who offer engineering services in Nigeria, do so under the business name category. This is a VERY WRONG approach, because there are a lot of limitations to the growth of such engineering firms.
While this may seem to be working for you at the moment (ie if you are already using a business name for engineering practice or plan to do so), there is no gainsaying the fact that you would be needing to re-register the business name as a limited liability company sooner or later, else, your company would not be awarded bigger contracts from Government bodies and/or corporate establishments, that are much more rewarding financially and otherwise, than the petty works your business name could presently afford you (unless of course you do not expect your engineering establishment to grow).
Furthermore, re-registering a business name as a limited/unlimited liability company, takes more time, effort, and money, and most times you may not get approval to use the exact same business name for the limited company perhaps because someone else now has that name as a trademark. HOW DISASTROUS!.....?
So why not simply get it right from the very beginning, and save the inevitable hiccups that come later?
So, having gotten the fact that what you need for an engineering firm is an incorporated company, let's look at other requirements for registering such a company with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Furthermore, a registered engineering company could be allowed to operate either as a civil engineering company, mechanical engineering company, electrical engineering company, petrochemical engineering company, marine engineering company, etc, or some times as a company undertaking works from more than just one branch of engineering.
Who Can Start An Engineering Company In Nigeria?
An engineering company can be established and registered by any two or more persons who have the requisite qualification and professional certifications for carrying out engineering practice in Nigeria.For fresh engineering graduates, college certificate/s is usually substantial for use in setting up an engineering company. But presently, engineering companies cannot be registered in Nigeria without provision of professional certificates, for e.g those offered by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN, established by decree 55 of 1970 and amended by decree 27 of 1992), The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), The Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering (NATE), and other relevant professional bodies for engineering regulation in Nigeria.
These professional certificates show professionalism on the part of the engineer, and therefore anyone who wishes to establish an engineering company that would be duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, should have any of these certificates.
Taking Decision About The Kind/Category Of Company To Register
Company registration is done with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) under three main categories:1.) Business Name.
2.) Limited/Unlimited (Private/Public) Company.
3.) Incorporated Trustees.
An engineering company should be registered under the Limited /Unlimited (Private/Public) Company category. This is not an option, but a necessity. More explanations has been given about this category of companies in other posts.
However, some people who offer engineering services in Nigeria, do so under the business name category. This is a VERY WRONG approach, because there are a lot of limitations to the growth of such engineering firms.
While this may seem to be working for you at the moment (ie if you are already using a business name for engineering practice or plan to do so), there is no gainsaying the fact that you would be needing to re-register the business name as a limited liability company sooner or later, else, your company would not be awarded bigger contracts from Government bodies and/or corporate establishments, that are much more rewarding financially and otherwise, than the petty works your business name could presently afford you (unless of course you do not expect your engineering establishment to grow).
Furthermore, re-registering a business name as a limited/unlimited liability company, takes more time, effort, and money, and most times you may not get approval to use the exact same business name for the limited company perhaps because someone else now has that name as a trademark. HOW DISASTROUS!.....?
So why not simply get it right from the very beginning, and save the inevitable hiccups that come later?
So, having gotten the fact that what you need for an engineering firm is an incorporated company, let's look at other requirements for registering such a company with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
HOW TO REGISTER AN ENGINEERING COMPANY WITH THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION
Company registration does not have completely fixed procedure or requirements, things change overtime, and you need to be aware of current requirements and procedures in order not to get embarrassed and stuck at some point, Truth Be Told!.
This is not to say that all procedures change, there are still procedures that stay exactly or nearly the same.
This is not to say that all procedures change, there are still procedures that stay exactly or nearly the same.
For engineering company registration, professional involvement is required, and therefore there may be more changes overtime due to standards regulation and perhaps other necessary considerations.
However, to register an engineering company in Nigeria, having considered and satisfied the aforementioned requirements, you need to do the following:
- Obtain FORM CAC 1 (Availability Check And Reservation Of Name Form) from any CAC office nearest to you. Fill-in two proposed name of the company as well as other fields in the form. Submit the form to the CAC officer in attendance. You would be told when to come back to check if the proposed name/s has been approved or denied (usually within 3-4 days if things pan-out fine).
- After the specified time, go back to the desk where you submitted the name search form, and check if one of your proposed names has been approved of. If one of the names is approved, then move on to the next step, but if denied, then try to find out the reason/s for which your proposed names were denied, and then repeat step (1), carefully selecting names that wouldn't get denied again. Name search alone could take several weeks if you do not chose names tactfully, or do not know how to chose names that work.
- Pay the required fees which include payment for company registration and obtainance of Certified True Copies (CTC) of incorporation documents to the CAC (fee dependent on the category of company and the company share capital), payment of stamp duty fees to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (fee also dependent on the company structure and share capital), as well as other legal and/or professional charges as requisite.
- Pay for and obtain the following forms from the Corporate Affairs Commission; FORM CAC 7 (Particulars Of Persons Who Are First Directors Of The Company), FORM CAC 2 (Statement Of Share Capital And Return Of Allotment), FORM CAC 2.1 (Particulars Of Person Who Is The Company Secretary Of A Company Or Any Changes Therein), FORM CAC 3 (Notice Of Situation/Change Of Registered Address), FORM CAC 4 (Declaration Of Compliance With The Requirements Of CAMA, to be filled by a legal practitioner/lawyer, chartered accountant or chartered secretary, and stamped by a commissioner of oaths/notary public).
- Prepare the Memorandum and Articles Of Association of the company and get the company directors and/or shareholders to sign where necessary.
- Submit the Memorandum and Articles Of Association, Form CAC 2 and the receipt/teller for payment of stamp duties in favour of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). Then afterwards you would obtain a special FIRS payment receipt/ticket, which would be used as an evidence of payment and also for stamping and putting a seal on the submitted MOA, AOA and FORM CAC 2.
- Submit all completely filled-out forms in step (4), registration/incorporation fee receipts, Information page of the company directors (means of identification of the company directors), the documents stamped by the FIRS, certificate/s of proficiency (COMPULSORY), to the CAC for assessment, stamping and final processing.
- If all documents as submitted in the step above are verified okay by the CAC, then the required copies of the documents would then be submitted to the CAC officer on seat. This would be used for final processing after which the certificate of incorporation and Certified True Copies of incorporation documents (as requested) would be issued to you.
But sadly, only a handful of individuals who plunge-in headfirst to register their company by themselves get to pull it off successfully without really messing things up. TRUTH BE TOLD!
OUR CANDID RECOMMENDATIONS ON COMPANY REGISTRATION
- Company registration could be done online on the CAC portal, but we at Busco Registrars Nigeria highly recommend that individuals who wish to register their company, should use the direct services of the commission to avoid the regrets that always come with wrong use of the portal. However, the portal makes for ease of incorporation processes and can only be usable IF AND ONLY IF you really know what you are doing, else you may land into a serious mess along the line (invariably).
- Unlike BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION, COMPANY REGISTRATION requires the assistance of ACCREDITED PROFESSIONALS.
- In reiteration to the recommendation above, if company incorporation is what you wish to do (other than business name registration), then we recommend you employ the services of accredited professionals who have gone through the process over and over again and who have the processes of incorporation of companies all figured out right from the very beginning. This is to save you the RISKS and REGRETS that may come up later on if things go seriously wrong.
Most of them end up making mistakes that means they have to pay fees more than once, take a longer process that saps more money from them in the process, employ the services of an accredited professional in the middle of their mess (which means more time and much more expenses), go to quacks that claim to know it all, and even spend several months or even years trying to register one company. TRUTH BE TOLD!
SO WHY NOT GET IT RIGHT AT FIRST?
We at BUSCO REGISTRARS NIGERIA are greatly committed to helping you with incorporation of your company of any kind/category within record time and without the usual hassles and bottlenecks involved in registering companies in Nigeria.
Click HERE to learn about our services and contact us for a free quote.
Wanna be among the lucky 14% who pull it off on their own? then be our guest!
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