More than 300,000 companies risk being removed from the Registrar General’s new Company Database (eRegistrar) by June this year.

This follows the decision by the Registrar General to issue a final warning to these dormant firms that have failed to comply with the requirements for registered companies in Ghana.  

This move by the department is a follow up to two earlier notices issued on May 12 and on December 1, 2020, reminding companies about the cleanup of its register.

Companies therefore have between now and 30^th June, 2021 to comply with this directive.

The exercise, according to the Registrar General has become necessary as a result of the Department’s database being over-bloated with names of 740,628 dormant companies registered between 1963 to 2011, (Legacy database), with only 70,346 being updated into our new database.

The Registrar General, Jemima Oware noted that the rest of the companies have neither ever filed their Annual Returns nor Re-registered with the Department.

“More so, only 266,765 Companies have filed their Annual Returns out of the total 524,006 Companies registered in the new Company database (eRegistrar) since 2012 to 2020,” she added.

The Registrar General said this renders the rest of Companies not in good standing with the Department.

Based on this directive and after 3 months of expiration, “the names of the Companies/Partnerships that have still failed to comply with the moratoriums granted, will be struck off the register and company deemed dissolved” she added.

She also warned that companies must take the necessary steps to act on this final notice, as the Department would deem Companies that do not update their records  cannot  carrying on business.

Registrar General introduces beneficial ownership

The Registrar-General’s Department also announced the introduction of a Beneficial Ownership Transparency Regime as part of the Company Registration processes under the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992).

Who is a Beneficial Owner?

A Beneficial Owner (or Owners) is the individual or natural person who owns, controls and has interest in, or exercises influence over the legal person (or arrangement) or receives substantial benefit from its activities. A beneficial owner is an individual and should not be a Company.

 Reasons for its introduction

The registrar General noted that one of the purposes for which the Beneficial Ownership Regime is being added to our processes is to ensure that Companies know who they are transacting business with.