How to open a Corporate Bank Account in Nigeria: A step-by-step guide

One of the major steps a company undertakes after registering with the Corporate Affairs Commission as a registered entity is to open a corporate Bank account with any of Nigeria’s legacy Banks to commence operations. This is an essential first step for corporations, as partners, clients/customers feel more comfortable dealing with corporate accounts for transactions over individual accounts.

Benefits of having a Nigerian Corporate Account

For companies, partnerships, Business Names, that have been registered in Nigeria by the Corporate Affairs Commission, there are numerous benefits they gain when they open corporate accounts for their entities in Nigeria, as follows:

1. Ease of doing business locally. Customers and clients are likely to view a transaction as suspicious if they are not conducting the transaction on the corporate account of a company. Due to fraud concerns, most Nigerians would prefer to pay funds into the corporate account of companies they are transacting with, rather than paying into the individual accounts of any proprietor or director of the company. Thus, it’s important for companies to try as much as possible to open bank accounts in the name of their company with any Bank of their choice.
2. Building financial track record and business credit: If a company opens a bank account in its name, it’s easy for such entity to track their financial records and account statements for many years at a time. Whenever they need these records for any official or bidding purposes, they can easily call them up through their bankers. This makes it easier for companies to build their business credit rather than transacting with the personal accounts of the proprietors and directors.

What are the requirements to open a Nigerian Corporate Account

There are many Nigerian Banks to choose from when a company wishes to open a corporate account in Nigeria, and although there may be slight disparities in account opening requirements, there are certain uniform requirements most of them need before they can process a corporate bank account for a company. These include:

1. Company registration with the CAC
2. Tax Identification Number
3. SCUML registration (if applicable, depending on sector)
4. Registered office address
5. Identity documents of the company directors
6. Passport photographs of account signatories and IDs
7. Bank Verification Number (BVN) of all account signatories, even if they are non-resident foreigners

What are the requirements to open a Nigerian Corporate Account

The requirements to be met before a registered entity in Nigeria can open a corporate bank account in Nigeria include:

1. CAC registration documents: For a company, the company has to submit the company’s certificate of incorporation, memorandum & articles of association, and Status Report [CAC Form 1.1] For a Business Name, the proprietors have to submit the Certificate of Registration and Status Report.
2. Tax Identification Number [TIN]: Upon registration, sometimes the CAC automatically issues a TIN to a registered entity. The said TIN comprises of twelve digits which ends with “-0001”, issued by the Federal Inland Revenue Service. Without a TIN, no Nigerian Bank would agree to open a corporate account for a Nigeria-registered Entity.
3. IDs and passport photographs of signatories: As aforementioned, during the account opening process, part of the documents required is the Form CAC 1.1 which shows the details of all officers of the company. However, all signatories to the (proposed) account – be it sole signatory or joint signatories where there are more than one – shall provide their valid government-issued Identification for the record. This requirement applies even if the signatories are foreigners.
4. Bank forms: Banks will issue account-opening forms to be filled and returned to them together with all other listed requirements.
5. Corporate References: Nigerian Banks usually require at least two corporate references to referee your company and sign the application forms before you can open a corporate account in Nigeria. From our inquiries and investigations [at time of press], although not all Nigerian banks require this, most of them do and without corporate referees, they won’t open a bank account for a Business/company.
6. Utility Bill: the entity is required to submit a recent utility bill (water, electricity, or waste bill) of not more than three months of the operating address of the entity.
7. SCUML registration certificate: The SCUML (Special Control Unit on Money Laundering) certificate is obtained by companies that operate in certain sectors of the economy. Thus, if the company seeking a corporate account deals in jewelery, cars, luxury goods, audit, tax, clearing and settlement; operates supermarkets, casinos, pool betting and lottery businesses; accounting, consulting, real estate mortgage, among others, they are required to register and obtain SCUML certificate. Banks won’t open corporate accounts for companies that deals in such services and sectors without a submission of their SCUML Certificate.
8. Company resolution: The directors of a company are required to draft and sign a resolution that the company is authorized to open and operate a bank account (whether Naira and/or domiciliary account) with any Bank. This resolution must be made on company letterheaded stationery and signed by the directors of the company. If it is a Business Name, then the proprietor(s) shall draft the application and sign same.

Common Types of Corporate Accounts in Nigeria

1. Current Account (a corporate entity cannot open a savings account)
2. Domiciliary account (be it USD, GBP, EURO, YEN-denominated)

How Kabbiz Global Nominees can Help with your Account Opening

We are one of Nigeria’s leading corporate service providers, assisting foreign corporations around the world to migrate their entities to Nigeria and open local subsidiaries for them in Nigeria. We go a step further to assist them with opening bank accounts for their businesses in Nigeria. In other words, we assist not only with company incorporation, but we also liaise with local Banks on your behalf and operate your mandate to open a Bank account for you with any of Nigeria’s leading Banks.

If you are a director in a foreign corporation seeking to migrate to Nigeria, please reach gather all relevant information that you need for the filing, then reach out to us via email at [email protected] and we will be glad to help you. We are Nigeria’s leading providers of business consultation and compliance services to Nigerian corporations and international corporations with Nigerian subsidiaries. We will be happy to assist you with end-to-end bank account opening.