2-day Business Registration: Facts on the ground exposes Registrar General

The stress and delay business owners face to register their companies in Ghana still linger despite the introduction of online business registration by the Registrar General Department.

The Registrar General, Jemima Oware, says the process of registering a business in Ghana has significantly improved.

Speaking in an interview with Accra based Joy FM, few weeks ago on the ease of business registration, Jemima Oware explained that new technologies allow for businesses to be registered between two to three working days and not months as has been reported by some entrepreneurs.

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“After you’ve gone through our processes we would give you a document to show when you should pick your document. This is within three working days for business names and five working days for limited liability but as a business department we have set our target of 2 working days’ business and 3 working days for limited liability, you can register in 2 days, no need for Goro boys,” Mrs Oware said.

Ghanatalksbusiness.com has conducted a follow up on the 2-day business registration pronouncement by the Registrar General. Our findings suggest that it is factually unrealistic to complete new business registration within two to three working days in Ghana.
We spoke to some entrepreneurs at the premises of the Registrar General who confirmed that it had taken them more than two weeks to complete registration for their Sole Proprietorship businesses.

We also interacted with other entrepreneurs who had gone through tiresome processes over weeks of attempting to register limited liability companies. One eventually resorted to the service of a ‘goro boy’ and completed registration in 10 working days. Another was asked to use the online portal after his registration documents went missing when he used the manual system.

Amidst the cumbersome process of registering a company, the issue of Middlemen ‘Goro boys’ at the Registrar general department still persist. They are available to help any entrepreneur register his company in 10 working days.

Our business analyst desk has suggested a few recommendations to curb the situation and ensure the department achieves its objective of ensuring speed and efficiency in business registration.

We obviously realise that having set this goal, leaders at the department are detached from the day to day reality, hence are unable to align activities towards this goal.

First, is to discourage the ‘Goro Boys’ syndrome by criminalizing the activities. Persons seen operating as such on the premises should be arrested and prosecuted to serve as deterrent.

All employees of the department should be made to own and personalize the goal of speed in service.. Ensure staff support the goal and are prepared to work towards attaining it. The department now boasts of an online portal but most clients still use the manual system handled by employees. They should consider implementing a Staff Performance Management System which ties incentives and reward packages to staff performance. Speed and efficiency of service would be measured and used as a basis for rewards, promotions, and other incentives. Such a measure would make employees sit up and improve staff performance to ensure the overall goal of speed in service is attained.