The Registrar of Companies, Jemima Oware has asked companies yet to file their annual returns to do so in order to be in good standing before June 30, 2024.

The Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) had earlier said some 508,000 businesses and companies in Ghana will be struck off the register for failing to comply with notices.

She stressed that the Office of the Registrar of Companies is not bent on just collapsing companies but wants businesses to comply with the rules and regulations

Speaking on the AM Show on the JoyNews Channel, Madam Oware advised entrepreneurs to always make the right steps to register their businesses.

"I am not that interested in collapsing but I am more interested in companies complying. You start your business and along the line some of them die and you relocate and when we later check the register and it’s the same location, it’s not right".

"We just want them to update their information. We have informed all these companies to go to the website and check and if they are still interested to work with us. They are not taking us serious. The names are already on our website", she said.

The ORC in a press release issued on Monday, June 3 said the affected firms have been served with notices and reminders through various sensitisation programmes and multiple publications for the past two years.

Initially, the Office of the Registrar of Companies gave the companies up to the end of 2023 but decided to extend the period to allow for intensive public education by the ORC and adequate preparation on the part of the defaulting businesses to enable them to comply with the directive.

It noted that Per Section 289 (5) of the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992), a company that has its name struck out from the register cannot and is not permitted to conduct business under the Company name for twelve years.”

Furthermore, the release warned that “a company struck off the register can only be restored by the Registrar of Companies after a court finds sufficient cause and therefore issues an Order to the Registrar of Companies directing the restoration of the name to the register as per Section 289 (7) of the Companies Act 992.”