The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has announced plans to deploy an Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent to clear a backlog of 7,000 company registration applications and reduce service delays.
Registrar-General/CEO of the CAC, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, SAN, made this known on Monday in Kano during a stakeholders’ forum.
According to him, the AI-powered platform marks a complete revamp of the Commission’s existing Company Registration Portal (CRP).
He explained that the new system will process requests across compliance, registry, and customer service functions more efficiently, helping to resolve issues that have hindered timely service delivery.
“In a bid to tackle the backlog of 7,000 registration applications… an AI agent was in the pipeline to handle requests across compliance, registry, and customer service with speed and accuracy,” the Commission said in a statement quoting the Registrar-General.
The Registrar-General further revealed that the portal has been programmed to provide instant name approvals, with the system intelligently suggesting alternatives when preferred names are unavailable.
Magaji likened the new process of name reservation to opening an email account, highlighting how AI will make approvals seamless and instant.
He admitted that the transition to the AI-driven portal has not been smooth, as customers have faced delays in approvals, particularly for services outside the first phase of deployment. The delays, he noted, were largely caused by the huge volume of applications being processed.
The AI-powered registration portal was first introduced in June this year to simplify business registration in Nigeria and speed up approvals.
To enhance efficiency further, Magaji said AI will also be used to manage the large number of daily inquiries.
According to him, the system currently handles no fewer than 3,000 emails daily. The AI tool being developed will be able to read and process those emails in under a minute, identify duplicates, and redirect them to the relevant departments for quick action.
The Registrar-General assured stakeholders that the Commission is committed to stabilising the AI portal and improving customer satisfaction.
“Problems have been identified, and solutions are already in motion,” he said.