The Corporate Affairs Commission says its new Artificial Intelligence-powered business registration portal is now handling over 11,000 transactions daily, marking a significant advance in automation despite ongoing technical challenges.

In a statement on Sunday, the CAC acknowledged persistent issues with identity verification and payment processing but assured users that efforts are underway to resolve them.

Since the portal’s launch on June 30, it has streamlined key processes, including the issuance of registration certificates within 30 minutes once a director’s National Identification Number is confirmed.

The portal also enables users to check the availability of multiple business names without upfront payment, helping to lower entry barriers for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“You can’t compare AI with humans for service delivery. We now handle over 11,000 cases daily,” the CAC stated.

“Last Friday alone, we received 8,000 name reservation requests, all processed the same day. That would have taken two weeks manually. Automation through intelligence is necessary. It’s a change we must accept.”

Despite major efficiency improvements, the CAC noted that delays on the platform are mainly caused by issues with third-party services.

The National Identity Management Commission portal has been down for several weeks, blocking automatic verification of NINs, while recurring outages on the REMITA payment gateway have interfered with fee processing.

The REMITA payment gateway has faced intermittent outages, disrupting fee collection, while stamp duty remittances are halted whenever the ProTax platform goes offline.

To address these setbacks, the CAC says it has sought Treasury approval to introduce an alternative payment channel that would ensure uninterrupted service during REMITA downtimes.