President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the new Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) with a mandate to build investor confidence, fight corruption and increase the ease of doing business.
The law establishing the office (Companies Act, 992 of 2019) gave CROs the functions of company and business registration and advisory services.
Law 992 of 2012 established ORCs as a new statutory entity – the Registrar of Companies – is different from the Registrar General’s department.
Speaking at the launch last Friday, President Akufo-Addo said the role of the Registrar General’s Department had not been abolished.
He said a new Registrar General would be appointed in accordance with law to continue the operations of the Registrar General’s Department to oversee the registration of intellectual property rights, special license marriages and the administration of estates.
President Akufo-Addo said the new Registrar of Companies is a body corporate with perpetual succession, acquires and holds property and enters into a contract or any other transaction.
The President indicated that while the Registrar of Companies had to raise substantial internally generated funds, the office was required by Law 992 to be financially self-sufficient from the government.
Chairman Akufo-Addo said that in addition to providing information to be entered in the Companies Registry, verifying information provided by companies to the Registrar, and providing direct access to information in the Registrar, “the office of the registrar of companies will become a viable partner of the government in the effort to eradicate corruption”.
This, the president explained, was the result of the phenomenon of fake business creation and opaque financial systems that provided an opportunity for laundering and hiding illicit wealth.
President Akufo-Addo commended the Registrar of Companies for the efforts made to ensure that all company and registered business records are digitized.
“This is in line with the goal of going completely digital and making the retrieval of company and business records fast and efficient,” he added.
