The Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) has announced that by December 2024, approximately 500,000 business names and 5,000 companies are at risk of being removed from its official register due to non-compliance with annual filing requirements. Despite being granted a one-year extension and receiving continuous reminders, many businesses and professional entities have failed to submit their annual returns.
Mrs. Jemima Mamaa Oware, the Registrar of Companies, explained that this delisting effort is aimed at enhancing compliance and improving the quality of the ORC’s business register. She emphasized the seriousness of the situation during a media interaction at a stakeholder engagement.
“For business names, it’s over 500,000, but for companies, it’s a sample of about 5,000… Those whose names are going to be removed are those we notified at the beginning of the year,” Mrs. Oware stated. “If by the end of this year, you haven’t complied, it means you are not conducting business, and once we remove your registration, your name cannot be used by anyone for the next 12 years unless you go to court for reinstatement.”
Mrs. Oware urged businesses that may be affected to take immediate action by updating their information and filing their annual returns to avoid these consequences. She also highlighted that failure to comply with the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) by the end of the year would result in significant repercussions, including the inability to engage in business transactions with both the government and private entities.
Looking ahead, the ORC is preparing to transition to digital services by April 2025. This shift will streamline processes, allowing businesses to register, renew, amend records, make payments, and file annual returns online. A pilot program is currently underway with the existing manual system.
Once fully implemented, the new digital system will provide an efficient platform for businesses and organizations, including churches, NGOs, and professional bodies, to obtain tax identification numbers and interact more easily with services such as the Ghana Post and the Ghana Revenue Authority. Mrs. Oware explained that the integration of ORC’s system with other key entities, including the National Identification Authority, Ghana Post, ghana.gov, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana, will help minimize human intervention and improve service delivery.
“The aim is to make business processes smoother, reduce errors, and increase the speed and accuracy of operations,” she said. This initiative is part of a broader modernization effort designed to ensure faster and more accessible business transactions.
On the financial front, Ghana’s local currency, the cedi, has seen slight losses on the interbank foreign exchange market, though it continues to strengthen against major currencies such as the US dollar at some forex bureaus. As of December 13, 2024, the cedi is trading at GH¢14.72 for buying and GH¢14.73 for selling. The British pound is being bought at GH¢18.71 and sold at GH¢18.73, while the euro is at GH¢15.47 for buying and GH¢15.49 for selling.
Despite these gains, experts warn that the depreciation of the cedi against major trading currencies continues to present challenges for the Ghanaian economy. The Bank of Ghana has been selling foreign currency to counter the cedi’s decline, with over 200 million dollars sold in recent efforts.
