The newly constituted Office of Registrar of Companies (ORC) will be launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to register and regulate all business entities in the country.
The ORC, carved out of the Department of the Registrar General, will be responsible for the registration of businesses such as private public companies limited and unlimited by shares, private public companies limited by guarantee, churches, schools, NGOs, CSOs, associations, unions, external companies, and professional bodies.
During a media engagement, Madam Jemima Oware, acting Registrar General of the RGD and Registrar of the ORC, said that unlike the RGD, the ORC would not be a department under the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice.
She said that it will function independently with a board of eleven members.
She said that the 2019 Companies Act, Act 992, formed the ORC to concentrate entirely on company registration and licensing, whilst the RGD will continue to handle marriage, estate, and industrial property rights registrations.
“The Act stated that this new office, that is Office of Registrar of Companies, should be operationalised within two years,” she stressed.
Madam Oware said that the creation of the ORC was a step towards resolving issues with company registrations.
She said that the company was creating software that would allow customers to establish their businesses online.
She said a call centre was also being established to guide clients.
“I believe with this new software, we are going to totally digitalise our operations, thus a user-friendly system that will enable people to easily register their businesses by themselves,” she added.
The ORC Registrar said that digitization will lessen the burden individuals experience while registering their businesses manually at the office and eliminate the problem of “goro boys”
Madam Oware said that the World Bank sponsored the initiative and a consultant assisted in establishing the Office.
Until it has its own office, the ORC will operate out of the RGD’s premises.
SOURCE: myjoyonline
