Accounting records a Nigerian company must keep
What CAMA 2020 says a Nigerian company's accounting records must contain, where they are kept, who may inspect them and how long they are kept.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
Ask the directors of a small Nigerian company where its accounting records are, and the answers vary. Some are in a box file in the office, some in the accountant's computer, some in a former bookkeeper's e-mail, and some nowhere at all because the transactions were never written down. That works until a tax audit, a dispute between shareholders or a bank's due diligence asks for them.
The Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 is specific about what a company must keep, where, for how long and who may look at it. The tax administration rules add their own requirements. This article sets out both, then shows how to organise the records so that they stand up when someone asks.
What CAMA says the records must contain
Section 374 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 sets out the content. A company's accounting records must contain:
- day-to-day entries of all money received and spent;
- a record of the company's assets and liabilities; and
- where the business deals in goods, statements of stock.
"Day-to-day" is the demanding part. A company that records only monthly totals, or reconstructs its year from the bank statement at year-end, is not keeping the records the Act describes. Each receipt and payment should be recorded as it happens, or close to it, with enough detail to show what it was for.
The stock requirement catches traders, manufacturers and retailers. If the business sells goods, it needs stock statements, not just a figure for purchases.
Where the records are kept and who may inspect them
Section 375 deals with location and access. The records must be kept at the company's registered office, or at another place in Nigeria that the directors think fit. They must be open to inspection by the company's officers at all times.
Two practical points follow. First, the directors decide the place, and they should be able to say where it is. Second, "at all times" means an officer who asks to see the records should not have to wait for a former bookkeeper to be found. Section 376 makes officers in default guilty of an offence, so this is not a formality.
CAC hosts the full text of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 on its portal; sections 374 to 376 hold the record-keeping rules in full.
Six years under CAMA, and the tax rules on English
CAMA requires the records to be preserved for six years from the date on which they were made. For incorporated trustees, section 847 also requires six years.
The tax side adds its own conditions. The NRS FAQ says taxpayers must keep books of account in English, or with a formal translation, and retain them for at least six years after the relevant assessment year. More generally, the NRS says the Nigeria Tax Administration Act requires taxpayers to keep accurate records and provide information on request.
The two clocks do not start at the same point. CAMA counts from when a record was made; the NRS counts from the relevant assessment year. Keep records until the later of the two has passed. The tax side is covered further in keeping records for six years.
The records also feed the company's financial statements. Under section 388, the directors must lay the statements before a general meeting and deliver a copy of the balance sheet, profit and loss account and notes with the annual return to CAC. Statements are only as good as the records behind them; the framework a smaller company reports under is discussed in financial reporting for Nigerian SMEs.
The ledger, bank statements and source documents in Achekam
Achekam gives each business its own double-entry ledger, with a standard chart of accounts created when the books first open. Accounts can be added, renamed or switched off as the business changes. The general ledger lists every posted line, and the trial balance shows each account for all time, for a period or at a date, and says whether debits equal credits.
Posting entries as transactions happen is what turns the ledger into the day-to-day record section 374 asks for; posting once a year from the bank statement is not.
Bank statements are imported as PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QIF, MT940 or CAMT.053. Each import is checked so that the opening balance plus the movements equals the closing balance, which catches a missing page or a missing month. Where the workspace has an AI model configured, it can read scanned or unrecognised PDFs, and every amount must appear on the page.
Electronic copies alongside paper, with fingerprints on stored files
Section 375(3) says electronic copies may be kept in addition to hard copies. Records kept electronically, in Achekam or anywhere else, sit alongside the records the directors keep at the registered office or the place they have chosen in Nigeria; they do not replace the directors' decision about where the records are kept.
The source documents, the invoices, receipts, contracts and stock counts, belong in Document Centre, a folder-based store where you upload files or whole folders, preview, tag, archive and search them. A new version of a document keeps the earlier ones. Every stored file gets a SHA-256 fingerprint, a code that identifies the exact file that was stored. Executable files are refused by default, and every upload passes a malware check.
A worked example in words: a trading company files each month's supplier invoices, sales receipts and stock count sheets in a folder for that month. Its bank statements are imported and balanced, and the ledger is posted from the documents. When the NRS asks about a purchase from three years ago, the bookkeeper finds the ledger line, opens the matching invoice in the month's folder, and shows the bank line that paid it.
A records health check
- Can the directors say where the company's records are kept, and is that place in Nigeria?
- Are receipts and payments recorded day to day, not just in monthly totals?
- Is there a record of assets and liabilities, and stock statements if the company deals in goods?
- Are the books in English, or translated?
- Does every ledger entry have a source document that can be found?
- Are records kept until both the CAMA and the NRS six-year periods have passed?
- Can any officer inspect the records without delay?
Run through the list with your accountant this quarter, and fix any "no" before an inspection, an audit or a buyer makes you.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
