Upgrading your business is one of the best decisions for expansion goals you could ever make. You can upgrade/convert your Business Name to a Limited Liability Company (LLC) so it can have and enjoy all the rights and benefits of a corporate legal personality.

The Corporate Affairs Commission -CAC- recognizes that businesses would want to scale-up, and have made provisions for a conversion from a Business Name to a private company limited by shares.

A business can decide to convert for a number of reasons, which may include any or all of the following:

1. To secure the business' future by having a financial structure with a share capital system

2. To increase the profit margin of the business to a whole new level

3. To have directors who would manage the company affairs, and shareholders that is, Persons with Significant Control - PSC who are contributors to the company 

4. To accommodate investors who would want to secure their contribution where there is a capital structure like that of a limited company

5. To allow for foreign participation in the business as Nigeria’s business laws make provisions for this for a limited liability company 

6. Where there’s an intention for the business to be a subsidiary as part of a group of companies 

7. To have a sense of operating or managing a Limited Liability Company.

What’s fascinating in conversion is that you still maintain the name as it were, plus the inclusion of the word ‘LIMITED’ as part of its registered name with all the benefits that goes with this business structure type. 

So ultimately, the conversion vests on the business a legal personality with all the benefits that accrue to this business structure type. 

The members of the company as a corporate body also take up certain rights and responsibilities including to acquire and allot shares to its shareholders, have dividend, voting and decision-making rights that would overall impact on the outcome of the business. 

So here is

A BREAKDOWN OF THE CRUCIAL SECTIONS TO DO A BUSINESS CONVERSION ON CAC iCPR 

You start by applying for the CAC Registrar General's consent to convert by entering the name of the Business Name and adding ‘limited’ as the suffix. 

Other sections to fill out are: 

• Entity Details 

• Articles of Association

• Object of Memorandum

• Directors/Secretary details

• Statement of Compliance

• Document upload which will be the original BN certificate, evidence of updated Annual Returns filing, if applicable; the proprietor’s authorization letter if applied by an Agent.

• You preview the entries and then make payment of consent fee

When the RG’s consent has been obtained, and there’s an approval the registration proper can proceed.

CONCLUSION

So your decision to upgrade or convert your Business Name to a Limited Liability Company is a step in the right direction for growth. No one goes wrong with a company that operates effectively.