The first office building complex for the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) has been completed in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, and is expected to be launched come Monday July 17, 2023.
The edifice – located right in the heart of Adum, Kumasi – is expected to serve the people of Ashanti as well as some parts of the Western, Oti and Eastern Regions.
It boasts 34 offices, two conference halls, four kitchenettes, 21 lavatories, two large car parks, a janitor’s office, pantry, canteen, reception, and a security office.
The building’s construction was funded with internally generated funds from both the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) and Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC).
The RGD sponsored the building’s construction from its initial stages up till 2019 – when the ORC took over following its creation by an Act of Parliament – the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) – which made it solely responsible for the registration, administration and regulation of businesses in the country.
The building’s construction, which began in 2012 and was expected to be completed by 2015, could however not be completed due to unforeseen challenges – until 2022 when it was finally done.
In an interview with Chief State Attorney at the ORC, Nana Ama Akyiaa Prempeh, he said the idea to build the ORC’s own office complex came about after the landlady of their rented private building at Dadiesoaba, a suburb in Kumasi, in 2012 threatened to evict the then Registrar-General’s Department (RGD) which occupied that facility.
The Chief State Attorney then in charge of the RGD in the region, Joseph Kofi Harlley, decided that it was time for Kumasi as the region’s commercial hub to have an office befitting its status to forestall future occurrences.
Subsequently, together with some senior members of staff, he proceeded to scout the city for suitable land or a building to purchase for use as office accommodation. Their efforts were rewarded with a very suitable piece of land that was lying next to the St. George’s Church – right opposite the Catering Rest House along the Fuller Road at Adum in the Kumasi metropolis business district.
The Registrar-General immediately gave his blessing, and a building committee comprising representatives from the Registrar-General’s Department, Architectural Engineering Services Limited as well as the contractor, Big Omen Company Limited, was quickly put together to oversee the building’s construction – which was initially scheduled to commence in 2012 and completed by 2015. Mr. Harlley however retired in 2015 and was succeeded by Mrs. Jemima Oware, the current Registrar of Companies.
The current Chief State Attorney said like her predecessor, the then Registrar-General, Mrs. Oware competently supervised the building’s construction from 2015 until it was completed and handed over in June 2022.
Nana Ama Akyiaa Prempeh further noted that in June 2018, ORC staff had to move into the yet-to-be completed building (80 percent complete) after their landlady sold the building they were occupying at Dadiesoaba to a third party.
She however praised members of staff for comporting themselves very well, as they accommodated the artisans until work on the building project was completed and accordingly handed over to the Office of the Registrar of Companies.
She said the building’s completion coincided with the ORC’s birth – which has come to bring sanity in business registration; adding that as a result of fresh impetus brought about by the ORC, business registration has been considerably stepped up.
Also, their presence at the metropolis’ business district’s centre has led to an increase in patronage because of easy accessibility.
