Certifications of signatures

Within the scope of signature certification, the German Embassy or Consulate General confirms that a signature was actually executed by the person indicated. This provides the recipient or the contracting party with certainty about the authenticity of the signature.

To have your signature certified on a document, please book an appointment at the German Embassy Abuja or the German Consulate General Lagos.

Please note that the fee for a signature authentication depends on the value of the respective legal transaction (e.g. purchase contract), but is at least 56.43 EUR. The equivalent value in Nigerian Naira depends on the daily exchange rate of the responsible foreign mission. At the Consulate General in Lagos, the fees can only be paid with POS. The Embassy in Abuja exclusively accepts cash payments.

Notarisation

For some legal transactions, a certified signature is not sufficient; instead, a higher formal requirement applies, the so-called notarisation. This is the case for the following legal transactions, among others (the list is not exhaustive):

• Acknowledgement of paternity and declaration of consent
• Declaration of custody
• Affidavit
• Application for a certificate of inheritance
• Property purchase agreement

If a notarisation is required, the Embassy or Consulate General can carry out a notarisation. Therefore an appropriate preparation is necessary. We kindly ask you to contact us via our contact form in the above-mentioned cases in order to discuss the procedure. In this context, we can also provide you with information on the fees that will be charged.