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backIf you live in Nigeria, the odds that you interact with informal businesses on a daily basis are quite high; they are everywhere around us. They are the mom-and-pop shops in our neighbourhoods, the mechanics who fix our cars, the roadside vendors we buy cold drinks from on a hot day. They are the heartbeat of the economy.
In 2024, Moniepoint released our first Informal Economy Report, a comprehensive study that gives deeper insight into how Nigeria's informal businesses operate. In the same year, we also launched our business registration service, a strategic partnership with the Corporate Affairs Commission that helps business owners to register their business names and move from informality to formality through the Moniepoint business banking app.
But why do we care so much about supporting informal businesses?
Building for Nigeria’s builders
The informal economy accounts for millions of businesses in Nigeria. These businesses are drivers of productivity, employment and stability for millions of homes across the nation. They are indispensable, not only to the nation’s GDP, but to the communities that rely on them for everyday commerce.
Data from our 2025 Informal Economy Report reveals that 44% of informal businesses start out of the owner’s determination to stay afloat when formal employment is out of reach. Because they start their businesses out of necessity, many informal entrepreneurs tend to focus on immediate survival rather than long-term planning. For many, formalising is something that’s on the distant horizon, if they consider it at all.
But remaining informal means these businesses operate outside formal and government systems, which is why the informal economy is often referred to as the “shadow economy”. As a result, they miss out on opportunities such as access to credit, larger markets, and government support. They also remain excluded from formal banking as the CBN mandates that only businesses registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission can operate bank accounts under their business names.
Since 2015, Moniepoint has been powering the dreams of businesses across Nigeria, giving them the tools they need to thrive. For us, supporting informal businesses is an extension of our mission and an investment in the Nigerian economy.
Breaking new ground
Building business name registration into the Moniepoint business banking app was a first-of-its-kind integration that required careful planning, stakeholder coordination, and a deep understanding of what business owners actually need.
We were the first financial institution to integrate directly with the CAC’s online portal. This meant there was no playbook to follow as we started to build. Our priority was to integrate with their systems in a way that felt seamless within a mobile banking experience, and it required extensive coordination and technical groundwork.
We needed to ensure our implementation met all regulatory requirements while maintaining the security and compliance standards of a licensed financial institution. This involved working closely with our legal and compliance teams to map out every data point we'd collect and every document we'd handle.
Before writing a single line of code, the team spent time understanding the actual pain points of business registration. Customer research revealed consistent themes. Business owners felt overwhelmed by forms asking for too much information at once. They were frustrated by the time it took to validate their proposed business names. They wanted transparency about timelines and status updates. These insights shaped how we designed the service.
To prepare technically, the team had to build integration layers that could communicate reliably with external provider APIs. This meant establishing authentication protocols, handling different response formats, and building fallback mechanisms for when external systems experienced downtime.
Security was paramount. We were going to handle government-issued IDs, personal information, business documents and other kinds of data that required enterprise-grade protection. The infrastructure needed end-to-end encryption, secure storage with access controls, and full audit trails. Every piece of data flowing through the system had to be protected at rest and in transit.
The team also had to think through operational considerations. What happens when a document is rejected? How do we communicate delays in processing? How do we ensure users always know the status of their application? These were experience design questions that required cross-functional collaboration between engineering, product, design, and customer success.
The experience
Before we get into how we built it, here’s an overview of the business name registration process:
Business owners open their Moniepoint app, tap the registration banner on their dashboard, and begin the process. They enter basic business information, including two proposed business names and get instant feedback on availability. If both names are taken, the system suggests alternatives. Once they have an available name, they fill out the required information across simple, focused screens. They upload their government-issued ID, which is validated in real time. They pay the ₦29,500 registration fee through the same payment system they already use for banking. Then they submit and wait.
Once the registration process is complete, the Certificate of Registration is available for download directly in the app. With Moniepoint, businesses can receive their certificates in as little as 48 hours.
Behind the screens
Behind that simple experience is an intricate technical system that manages multiple validation layers and asynchronous processes.
Name validation
When a business owner submits a proposed business name through the mobile banking app, the submission triggers a validation API call on the backend. The system runs internal checks first before reaching out to external providers.
The internal validation happens in layers. First, the system checks our internal database to verify if the proposed name is already in use by another customer. Next, it scans for restricted words. The CAC has rules about words like "cryptocurrency," "school," or "government" that require special licensing. The system catches these upfront. Then it verifies that the name has a proper suffix such as "Enterprise," "Business," "Venture," or "Services."
Only after all internal validations pass does the system reach out to the external provider. We work with OASIS as our third-party provider for CAC integration. Their API checks the proposed name against the CAC's database of already registered businesses.
The provider returns a compliance score: a percentage indicating how similar the proposed name is to existing registered names. We have a configurable threshold for this score. If it comes back above 70%, the name is allowed. Below that threshold, it's too similar to something that already exists.
The provider's validation API also returns suggestions of names similar to what the customer proposed, but different enough to pass validation. The system collects these suggestions, modifies its own APIs to carry this information, and presents them on screen. The customer can either select one of the provided suggestions or enter a new name to repeat the validation process.
This entire flow, from internal checks to external validation to suggestion generation, happens in seconds. Managing this required careful API rate management, smart caching strategies to avoid redundant validations, and fallback mechanisms for when external systems are slow or unavailable.
Document processing and submission
When users upload their government-issued IDs, the system validates file format and size, checks image clarity to ensure text is readable, and extracts data to verify it matches information entered manually. This pre-validation dramatically reduces rejection rates from CAC by catching issues before submission.
Once payment is confirmed, the system packages all data according to CAC's exact specifications and submits it through the provider's API. The system then continuously polls for status updates. Every few hours, automated jobs check whether pending registrations have been processed and documents have been generated.
When registration completes, the retrieval system fetches the documents, validates them to ensure they're complete and correctly formatted, stores them securely, and triggers notifications across in-app alerts, email, and push notifications.
Security and compliance
All data transmission uses end-to-end encryption. Document storage has granular access controls so only authorised systems and personnel can access registration documents. The system maintains audit trails for every action taken on every application. The implementation ensures full compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act and integrates KYC and AML checks throughout the flow.
Every technical decision, from authentication to final document retrieval, was guided by our commitment to the business owner’s success. The result of this careful, first-of-its-kind effort is not just a feature, but a catalyst for growth, which we can now measure.
The impact
Since we launched our business registration service, we’ve helped thousands of businesses formalise their operations through our platform. Every number represents a business that is now legally protected, more trustworthy to customers and able to access more opportunities.
The businesses that have registered through Moniepoint span sole proprietorships and partnerships across diverse sectors. They're merchants, traders, service providers, and small business owners who now have the legal foundation to pursue contracts, access credit facilities, and build sustainable operations.
Our mission is to create a world where every African, everywhere, can achieve financial happiness. By helping businesses get formalised, we’re powering their dreams and enabling them to scale with confidence.
Obsessed with building solutions that solve real problems? There might just be room for you on our team. Visit our careers page to check out our open roles.
