President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is set to launch the newly established Office of Registrar of Companies (ORC) to register and regulate all business entities in the country.

The ORC, carved out of the Registrar General’s Department, will handle the registration of businesses such as private public companies limited and unlimited by shares, private public companies limited by guarantee, including churches, schools, NGOs, CSOs, associations, unions, external companies and professional bodies.

Madam Jemima Oware, the Acting Registrar General of the RGD and Registrar of the ORC, at a media engagement, said unlike the RGD, the ORC would not be a department under the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice.

She said it would operate as a company on its own with an eleven-member board.

The Companies Act 2019, Act 992, she said, established the ORC, to focus solely on business registration and licensing, whereas, the RGD would continue to deal with registrations of marriages, estates and industrial property rights.

“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 the establishment of the ORC was a step towards addressing challenges with business registrations.

She disclosed that they were developing digital software to make it possible for clients to register their business 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 the digitalisation would reduce the stress people go through to register their companies manually at the office and take out the issue of middlemen, popularly called “goro boys.”

Madam Oware said the project was funded by the World Bank with a consultant helping with the establishment of the Office.

The ORC will be operating from the premises of the RGD until it gets its own office.