Registering an audit firm with the FRC: fees and dues
How a Nigerian audit firm registers with the FRC as a professional firm, the documents it needs, and how its registration fee and annual dues are set.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in Nigeria
For years, registering a firm with the Financial Reporting Council was one of those tasks a Nigerian practice meant to get round to. That changed when the FRC launched its national register of audit and assurance firms. A firm that is not on it cannot practise, and the register is only as current as the firm's own profile.
This guide is for the partner or practice manager handling the firm's registration: which category applies, what the online form asks for, how the registration fee depends on the number of partners, and how annual dues are worked out from the firm's assurance revenue.
The Professional Firms category
The FRC's registration guidelines for professional firms require audit firms, and other firms that provide assurance services, to register under the Professional Firms category. The guidelines list those other services widely: accounting, financial consulting, actuarial, valuation, tax, information technology, legal and corporate governance services.
The firm's FRC registration is separate from its partners' individual registrations, and depends on them, as the next section shows. The guidelines themselves, the FRC's registration guidelines for professional firms, are the place to confirm the current process before starting.
What the application needs
To register a professional firm, the FRC asks for:
- the firm's certificate of incorporation;
- the FRC individual registration numbers of its partners;
- a scanned copy of the declarant's signature;
- the FRC number of the audit firm that audits the firm itself.
In the online form, the firm enters the number of partners, their names and their FRC numbers, and the declarant who signs must be a partner in the firm.
Two of those items catch firms out. Every partner needs an individual FRC number before the firm can complete its own application, so individual registrations come first; the steps for those are in FRC registration for partners and audit staff. And the firm needs the FRC number of its own auditor, which means that auditor must be registered too.
The registration fee, by size of firm
The guidelines set the registration fee for audit firms by the number of partners:
| Firm size | Partners | Registration fee |
|---|---|---|
| Big | 10 or more | ₦2 million |
| Medium | 4 to 9 | ₦500,000 |
| Small | 1 to 3 | ₦10,000 |
These are the figures in the guidelines uploaded in July 2024, as published at the time of writing. A firm close to a boundary should count its partners as the form will record them, since the count it enters determines the band.
Annual dues on assurance revenue
Annual dues work differently. The guidelines say dues for audit firms, effective from 2023, are based on the preceding year's revenue from audit and other assurance services, with 2022 revenue used for the first dues year.
The bands run from 0.340% of that revenue, where it is above ₦5 million but less than ₦1 billion, to 0.360%, where it is ₦5 billion and above, with intermediate bands at 0.345%, 0.350% and 0.355%. Where the revenue is equal to or less than ₦5 million, the dues are a flat ₦10,000. The guidelines warn that false or wrong revenue attracts severe penalties.
A worked example in words. A small practice whose audit and assurance revenue last year was below the ₦5 million mark pays the flat amount. A larger firm whose assurance revenue fell between ₦5 million and ₦1 billion pays 0.340% of it. The figure that matters is assurance revenue, not total fee income, so a firm with a large tax or advisory practice should separate the two in its management accounts before the dues are calculated.
Keeping the profile current
The FRC said in a news item of 19 April 2026 that audit and assurance firms that failed to register or update their profiles on or before 31 March 2026 do not appear on the Register and are barred from practice until duly registered. Registration and profile updates go through the FRC's registration portal.
The lesson is that registration is not a single event. A change of partners, a new auditor for the firm, or a new dues year are all reasons to revisit the profile. Diary a review each year, before the dues fall due, and after any change in the partnership.
Recording the entry in Achekam
Achekam does not register anyone with the FRC, and it does not look up the register online: its "check online" call always answers UNAVAILABLE. What it does is hold the result of the firm's own work. Staff record the firm's FRC register entry and each signing professional's registration, and a different person must verify each one against the official register with dated evidence.
That verification has a consequence. Achekam blocks signing of a Nigerian audit report until the firm's FRC register entry, the signer's FRC number and the signer's ICAN or ANAN good standing have been recorded and verified by someone other than the person who recorded them. The firm-register requirement applies from 1 April 2026. How that block works on an engagement is set out in the FRC firms register and signing a Nigerian audit.
A registration checklist for the practice manager
- Register each partner individually and collect every FRC number.
- Confirm the FRC number of the firm's own auditor.
- Gather the certificate of incorporation and the declarant partner's scanned signature.
- Count the partners and note the fee band.
- Separate last year's audit and assurance revenue from other fees for the dues calculation.
- Submit the form, pay, and keep the receipts.
- Capture the firm's entry on the FRC register with a date, and have a second person verify it in Achekam.
Done in that order, the firm's registration is a morning's work rather than a scramble the week a client asks to see it.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
