Nigeria’s drive towards a more transparent, accessible and technology-driven business environment has found a significant expression in the transformation of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) under its Registrar-General, Barrister Ishaq Magaji. For SANI IBN SALIHU, these developments represent more than administrative adjustments; they reflect a leadership approach that seeks to redefine how public institutions deliver services, generate revenue and support economic growth
On October 13, 2023, President Tinubu appointed Barrister Ishaq Magaji, as the fifth substantive Registrar-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporate Affairs Commission. The appointment was historic, as Magaji became the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to head what the article describes as Africa’s largest companies registry. A former Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, commercial lawyer and former counsel to the Commission, he left his flourishing law firm, Ishaq Magaji & Co, which he founded on December 9, 2021, to take charge of an institution facing significant operational challenges.
He inherited a Commission grappling with an overstretched, glitch-prone registration portal, a backlog of thousands of applications, more than 3,000 emails arriving daily with fewer than 100 staff available to handle them, a register bloated with dormant shell companies and revenue of about ₦14 billion in 2022.
Three years later, the CAC has undergone a far-reaching transformation, moving from a manual, location-bound registry towards a fully digital, end-to-end, round-the-clock government service. This transformation forms the central focus of the leadership record examined in this article.
The most prominent feature of Magaji’s tenure has been the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) on a large scale. When he assumed office, business name registration could take two days or more, while efforts to resolve one technical problem sometimes created another.
The surge in applications arising from compliance drives, particularly the mandatory registration of Point-of-Sale (PoS) operators and business names, further exposed the limitations of the existing portal.
In response, Magaji pursued a radical solution: building a new AI-driven portal from scratch.
Launched in June 2025, Phase One of the AI portal focused on business name reservation and registration. Processes that previously took days could now reportedly be completed in less than 10 minutes, from commencement to certificate issuance.
Speaking at the Kano Stakeholders Forum in 2026, Magaji explained the significance of the development, saying: “Anywhere you are, without knowing anyone in CAC or paying a middleman, you can register a business name and get your certificate instantly in less than 10 minutes. That is the new Nigeria we are building.”
Therefore, the CAC became the only corporate registry in the world offering registration at this speed. The AI system also automatically blocks prohibited names, including those associated with IPOB, Boko Haram and hate speech, thereby reducing human discretion and the opportunities for corruption in the name-approval process.
Further innovations followed with the redesign of the Commission’s website, http://www.cac.gov.ng, launched during its 35th anniversary celebrations in 2026. Two notable additions were the CAMA Lawyer and the AI Business Name Generator.
The CAMA Lawyer functions as a digital assistant, guiding users through the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, filing procedures and compliance requirements. The AI Business Name Generator, meanwhile, helps entrepreneurs develop suitable and potentially scalable business names, reducing unsuccessful name searches.
In another significant development, the Commission introduced business registration in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and other Nigerian languages, making the process more accessible to Nigerians who are not fluent in English. The initiative is particularly relevant to market women, artisans and other small-scale entrepreneurs who may otherwise encounter language barriers when attempting to formalise their businesses.
The Commission also expanded its online services from 33 to more than 100. The introduction of application programming interface (API) services has enabled banks, embassies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and security agencies to verify company information more efficiently, strengthening know-your-customer procedures and efforts to combat money laundering.
Magaji also secured a strategic collaboration with Google and its partners to strengthen the CAC’s cloud infrastructure, improve portal reliability during periods of heavy demand and adopt global best practices in ease of doing business. The partnership is expected to provide a foundation for Phase Two of the initiative, which aims to deploy AI across all CAC processes.
Formalising businesses, strenghtening transparency, growing revenue
Beyond technological innovation, Magaji’s leadership has focused on bringing informal businesses into the formal economy. He recognised that shutting down informal enterprises without providing accessible alternatives could undermine employment, particularly among young Nigerians. Rather than relying exclusively on enforcement, his administration sought to create pathways through which informal operators could formalise their businesses and participate in the regulated economy.
In 2024 alone, more than four million informal businesses were reportedly formalised under his leadership, bringing over four million Nigerians into the tax net. Nearly 50 per cent of PoS operators in Nigeria are now formally registered, according to the article.
The reform has strengthened the traceability of financial agents, supported national security, widened the channels through which government can collect revenue and enabled small businesses to open corporate bank accounts and access grants.
The Commission has also pursued measures to make registration more affordable. During its 35th anniversary celebrations, Magaji approved free business name registration for 3,500 small businesses across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, targeting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The CAC also partnered with state governments and non-profit organisations to facilitate business formalisation at no cost to eligible entrepreneurs.
Another major component of the reform agenda has been the sanitisation of the corporate register. A credible national registry, the argument goes, must accurately reflect the status of the businesses it contains rather than remain burdened by inactive entities and companies that fail to meet statutory requirements.
In 2025 alone, the Commission deregistered more than 400,000 dormant and non-compliant companies. These were entities that had failed to file annual returns for years, with some allegedly serving as shell companies for fraud, money laundering and illicit financial flows.
Explaining the rationale for the exercise, Magaji said: “Our register must reflect reality. Companies that have not filed returns or remained inactive for years cannot continue to occupy space on a credible national database. Such entities pose threats to economic operations.”
Alongside the clean-up, the Commission fully operationalised the Beneficial Ownership Register (BOR), which allows members of the public to access information about the actual human owners behind Nigerian companies. The initiative has strengthened the country’s corporate transparency framework, supported the fight against corruption and helped improve investor confidence. The article also notes that the Minister of Information has recognised the CAC as a pillar of Nigeria’s economic credibility under the present administration.
The Commission’s financial performance has provided another measure of the changes recorded during Magaji’s tenure. Despite operating as a fully self-funded agency and remitting 50 per cent of its internally generated revenue to the Federal Government under the 50–50 deduction policy, the CAC recorded substantial revenue growth. This was achieved even as the government reduced the Commission’s service fees by 50 per cent to ease the cost of doing business.
The CAC generated ₦14 billion in 2022, while revenue rose to ₦52.89 billion in 2025, representing an increase of approximately 253 per cent. This growth is a tripling of revenue in Magaji’s first year and a quadrupling in his second year.
Between 2022 and 2025, the Commission reportedly remitted ₦56.384 billion to the Federal Government. The amount comprised ₦55.65 billion deducted directly and another ₦734 million remitted through other channels. These figures were disclosed before the Senate Committee on Finance in 2026. The performance demonstrates that the Commission was able to increase its financial contribution to the government while continuing to improve staff welfare.
Human capital, institutional reforms, the Magaji leadership model
Magaji’s approach to transformation has extended beyond technology, revenue generation and regulatory enforcement to include human capital development and institutional culture. Recognising that organisational performance depends partly on the welfare and capacity of the workforce, his administration addressed inherited delays in staff promotion examinations and established arrangements for the 2024 and 2025 promotion exercises. Improved working conditions and the digitisation of processes have also helped reduce the burden of manual work on employees.
Stakeholder engagement has become another feature of the Commission’s approach. Moving away from what the article characterises as a closed-registry culture, the CAC has created opportunities for interaction with businesses, professional bodies, regulators and other stakeholders.
The Kano Stakeholders Forum, for instance, brought together representatives of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), EFCC, ICPC and PoS operators to discuss issues affecting business registration, compliance and the wider corporate environment.
The Commission has also promoted staff cohesion through monthly fitness walks and annual retreats organised around themes such as “AI at Scale, Advancing an Intelligent Corporate Registry”. These initiatives are intended to strengthen collaboration, encourage institutional learning and build a shared understanding of the Commission’s transformation agenda.
At the same time, the administration has sought to balance enforcement with public sensitisation. Rather than simply impose regulatory requirements, the CAC has used public enlightenment and media partnerships, including collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information, to explain its reforms and encourage compliance.
Taken together, these initiatives provide insight into the leadership philosophy that has shaped Magaji’s tenure. The first defining characteristic is the combination of legal expertise and technical innovation.
As a lawyer, he has sought to translate policy objectives into practical digital solutions rather than limit his administration to promises of modernisation. The development of an AI-driven portal with local engineers illustrates this approach.
Empathy is another element of the model. The inherited situation, in which fewer than 100 staff had to manage more than 3,000 emails daily, was unsustainable for both employees and service users. By redesigning the service-delivery process, the administration sought to address the underlying operational problem instead of expecting staff to continue coping with an inefficient system.
Integrity and transparency also feature prominently in the leadership narrative. As the first SAN to occupy the office, Magaji brought his legal background to bear on corporate regulation, including the automated blocking of prohibited business names and the strengthening of transparency through the Beneficial Ownership Register.
Youth and informal-sector inclusion constitute another important dimension. The emphasis on PoS operators, free business registration and the use of indigenous languages reflects an attempt to extend formal economic participation to groups that have often faced barriers to registration and regulatory compliance.
These measures collectively underpin the argument that the CAC’s transformation has involved more than the introduction of new technology. It has also entailed changes in service delivery, regulatory administration, stakeholder relations and the institution’s approach to its workforce and the wider business community.
The three-year period under review has consequently become a defining chapter in the Commission’s history. Magaji inherited an institution described as overstretched and burdened by technical difficulties, yet the reforms undertaken during his tenure have sought to establish a registry capable of processing business registrations in minutes.
The removal of more than 400,000 dormant and non-compliant companies, the reported growth in revenue from ₦14 billion to ₦52.89 billion and the expansion of online services from 33 to more than 100 illustrate the scale of the changes claimed by the administration.
As reported by the Daily Nigerian Newspaper during the CAC’s 35th anniversary celebrations: “When CAC marked its 35th anniversary, the celebration was more than ceremonial. It became a platform to showcase a sweeping reform agenda… transforming Nigeria’s company registry into a globally competitive institution.”
For President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the CAC’s experience under Magaji offers an example of how a public institution can combine service delivery with revenue generation. It also illustrates the potential for technology to reduce dependence on intermediaries, improve access to government services and limit opportunities for corruption.
Ultimately, the significance of Magaji’s tenure will depend not only on the achievements recorded so far but also on their sustainability. Maintaining the reliability of the digital platform, protecting the integrity of corporate records, improving service delivery and ensuring that small businesses continue to benefit from the reforms will be essential to consolidating the gains.
The young Registrar-General has not merely overseen the registration of businesses; it has helped register hope for millions of Nigerian entrepreneurs.
Salihu is a Media Consultant/Public Affairs Commentator