All companies in the country are now mandated to have specific suffixes attached to their names in order to know how to exactly define it.

Managing partner at M&O Law Consult, Emmanuel Sakyitey Mate-Kole who revealed this said the new development is captured in the country’s new company law.

Speaking on JoyNews’s The Law Sunday, on how to start a company in Ghana, he said Act 992 of the New Company Law requires companies to have suffixes.

“So all those companies that still have their names Limited are required to have their name change done,” he said.

“In the previous law, the suffix was that if you corporate a limited liability company, assuming it’s Emmanuel Mate-Kole, it will be limited so you will have Emmanuel Mate-Kole Ltd.

“However, under the new law the suffix for a limited liability is Limited Company or Ltd., so you choose one,” he said.

This, he said, can be done by a special resolution and also seek the consent of the Registrar General.

Mr Mate-Kole added that another thing that will make the name change effective is the amendment of the certificate of registration.

The name, he further indicated, must also be published in the company’s bulletin to warrant its effectiveness.

He also noted that section 21, sub-section 15 of the Company’s Act provides “a company limited by shares existing at the commencement of this Act has six months within which to comply with paragraph B and C of sub-section 1.

“It says the last words of names of a company provided by a share shall be a public limited company or the abbreviation PLC” and section C says “company limited by guarantee shall be limited by guarantee or the abbreviation LBG.”

This means that all companies registered from 2020 have no excuse as the law was passed in somewhere August 2019.