At an event on 6th October 2017, at the Banquet Hall at Ghana’s State House in Accra, the former Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, officially launched an e-registration system for the Registrar-General’s Department.
The Department is one of the institutions responsible for the registration of businesses in the country.
At the event, the Vice President spoke about the importance of technology and its ability to help Ghana keep up with its international peers
“The importance of ICT cannot be overemphasised in this 21st Century and Ghana will leap frog other countries and catch up with the rest of the world,” he said.
Mr. Bawumia called this system the “starting point to make Ghana the most business‑friendly nation in Africa,” aiming to cut both time and cost associated with business registration.
With the system in place, prospective businesses could register a business in “one day” as stated by the Vice President.
But eight years later, online business registrations appear to have been stuck in first gear, with users unable to register online and resorting to the manual process.
The Journey Towards Digitisation
In 2012, the Registrar General’s Department (now the Office of Registered Companies (ORC)), in collaboration with the World Bank’s eGhana project, started the process of automating business registration.
By 2017, an online registration system was launched, enabling services such as name searches, name reservations, business registration, regulatory filings, and e-payments.
However, many users The Labari Journal talked to said they faced difficulties in accessing and using the platform.
They reported issues including a lack of feedback and technical glitches.
Rollout of New Business Registration Software
The ORC, with assistance from the World Bank, announced plans to deploy a new, user-friendly online registration system hosted by the National Information Technology Agency (NITA).
This system aims to address previous technical challenges and make online business registration mandatory.
As of the date of this publication, the new software has not yet been rolled out.
The Labari Journal emailed the ORC for a comment on the availability of their new registration software. We have yet to receive a response at the time of this publication.
Still Manual
The digitization of business registration in Ghana is long overdue, particularly in light of the country’s predominantly informal business landscape.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, over 80% of businesses operate outside the formal sector.
An accessible online registration system, officials hoped, would help close this gap and support economic growth.
Entrepreneurs, SMEs, and startups all over the country would have an easier process to register their businesses without needing to travel long distances.
Other African countries, including Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa, have all implemented online business registration platforms, which make them more open to attracting foreign businesses.
But Ghana’s digital business registration remains stuck in a frustrating limbo—neither fully online nor truly efficient.
