Is There an Official CAC API? How Developers Integrate with CAC

The Short Answer

Yes, CAC has an API, but it isn't public. The Corporate Affairs Commission built it with NIBSS (Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System) and opened it in May 2025 to a small number of selected private-sector organisations. There's no developer sign-up, public documentation or sandbox.

So when a fintech, bank or marketplace says it "verifies businesses with CAC", it's almost always going through a provider that has done the integration work. This guide covers what CAC itself offers and how to integrate with CAC from your own product today.

What CAC Offers Developers

There are four ways to reach CAC's register, and only two of them work from code:

The CAC and NIBSS partner API

NIBSS describes the platform as letting selected private-sector organisations, which it calls "super agents", retrieve data from CAC's database for faster service and data verification, in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. It doesn't publish who qualifies or how to apply. If you're a large institution, it may be worth asking CAC or NIBSS directly. For everyone else, it's not a route you can plan a product around.

Why Scraping CAC's Search Fails

CAC's public search at search.cac.gov.ng is free, and it's tempting to script it. Teams that try usually stop, because:

• It throttles bursts. A handful of quick requests can start coming back as errors, which breaks onboarding at the worst moment.
• It changes without notice. When the page or its responses change, your parser breaks until someone notices.
• It only shows the basics. Name, number, status and date. Directors, shareholders and the address aren't in the public search.
• It can't register anything. Search is read-only, so it can't help users who aren't registered yet.

How to Integrate with CAC Today

Most products need one or more of these five jobs. With the FastCAC API, each is one call on the same keys, prepaid wallet and webhooks:

1. Search CAC's register, free

   By business name or RC/BN number, up to 50 matches with status and registration date. Lookup API.

2. Look up a business's full record, ₦200

   Address, email, and its directors and shareholders, each once with every role they hold and their shares. Lookup API.

3. Verify what an applicant told you, free (₦200 with officers)

   Number, name and active status, plus whether the people you're dealing with are its officers, as one result to act on. Verification API.

4. Watch businesses for changes, ₦100 a month each

   A signed webhook when a business's status or name changes. Monitoring API.

5. Register a Business Name, ₦35,000 including CAC's fee

   Check the name (₦80), file it, handle CAC's queries and get the certificate, all from your app. Registration API.

curl "https://api.fastcac.com/v1/businesses/search?query=RC%207654321" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FASTCAC_KEY"

Create a developer account for test keys straight away, and read the API docs for every endpoint and webhook.

What to Look for in a CAC API Provider

• Where the data comes from, and how fresh it is. Status should be read live from CAC's register when you ask.
• Lookup and registration in one place, so an applicant who isn't registered can fix it without leaving your flow.
• Public, per-call prices, with no charge when CAC has no business with the number.
• A real test mode that never touches CAC or real money, with a way to force every outcome.
• Webhooks for anything that takes time, like registrations and status changes.

CAC API FAQs