The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame has said the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) possesses the ability to be a formidable organ in the area of good governance and anti-corruption fight when effectively harnessed.

He said it was, therefore, imperative for the ORC to have permanent offices around the country, stressing that the agency needed to be “firmly established in every region and district of Ghana”.

Mr Yeboah Dame made the remarks on Monday, July 17 when he inaugurated the first office complex of the state agency in Kumasi.

The office complex will serve the Ashanti Region and some parts of the Western, Oti and Eastern regions.

It has 34 offices, two conference halls, four kitchenettes, 21 lavatories, two large car parks, a janitor’s office, a pantry, a canteen and a security post.

The passage of the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) in May made provision for the establishment of the new statutory body, the ORC, which is separate and distinct from the Registrar-General’s Department (RGD).

The ORC takes up the duties of registration, administration, and regulation of business entities.

The three-storey facility was funded with internally generated funds of both the RGD and the ORC at a cost of GH¢8 million.

Mr Yeboah Dame said it was remarkable that just after months of existence, the ORC had made tangible progress, including an acquisition of a two-acre piece of land in Accra for $3.5 million for the construction of its headquarters.

He said architectural drawings for the headquarters were being considered and the project would hopefully commence in September, this year.

A deputy Minister of Finance, Jemima Mamaa Oware, noted that failure to digitise the ORC would be dire and expensive for the nation to contemplate.

he said there were efforts to procure and install a new software for the ORC to migrate its operations.

That, she said, would make it possible for services to be accessed and payments made without the conduit of the activities of middlemen, popularly known as “goro boys”.

The Regional Head of ORC, Nana Ama Akyiaa Prempeh, said since the inception of the ORC in 2019, there had been an increment of 39.4 per cent in business registration and 32.7 per cent in company registration in the region.

“The relocation of the office from a hitherto obscure place at Dadiesoaba to the centre of the business district of the metropolis has led to the increase in patronage because of easy accessibility,” she explained.

Also present at the event were a deputy Minister of Finance, John Kumah; the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ORC, Seth Asante; the immediate past Registrar General, Joseph Kofi Harlley, and chief executive officers of some selected metropolitan municipal and district assemblies in the region.