The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) registered about 86,916 business in 2017.
The figure, according to the Department, represents 30% increase from that of 2016. In 2016 the RGD registered 60,896 businesses.
The business registration group that recorded the highest figure was Sole Proprietorship which had 58,506 new businesses.
It was followed by Companies Limited with Share recording 21,700 new registrations.
Companies Limited by guarantee also registered 5,754 while subsidiary business names recorded 594 new registration.
Partnerships recorded 213 new ones in 2017 while external companies recorded the least number of 149 new businesses.
About 12,000 companies out of the total figure, registered online.
The department is happy about what it described as the robust online registration. It believes the figure will go up hugely due to the attentions online business registration is attracting.
The Public Relation Officer for RGD, Constance Takyi told Starr Business’ Osei Owusu Amankwaah that, the efforts being put in place to make the offices of RGD across the country a one-stop-shop for business registration, will facilitate the registration of more business in 2018.
“We have the GRA and SSNIT here to aid business registration. This will bring a lot of convenience to our customers. Since we started the pilot we have had the premises of SSNIT and GRA overwhelmed with application,” Madam Takyi said.
The One- Stop -Shop would afford Businesses/ Company registration applicants the opportunity to obtain their documents such as the Ghana Revenue Authority’s Tax Identification Number (TIN) and Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) number.
This means applicants will no longer visit GRA and SSNIT separately but will have transactions with these organizations at a central point which is RGD front office.
The aim of setting up the one-stop shop for registration is to eliminate the bottlenecks that applicants go through in accessing the various services from the respective institutions.
Additionally, it would enable applicants obtain the requisite documents through a more convenient and an easy process. Furthermore, applicants who purchase registration forms from RGD would have TIN forms and SSNIT forms included in the pack.
This would help the applicant complete all the requisite forms at a go and submit them at the RGD office for further processing.
The project which is being piloted for three (3) months from February to April would enable key stakeholders address any challenges that may arise in the pilot phase.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Osei Owusu Amankwaah
