The Registrar-General’s Department has intensified the sensitization of stakeholders on the Companies Act,2019, Act 992. The public education is to inform stakeholders about the law and to encourage compliance.
The Registrar-General has since the outbreak of COVID 19, last year, reached its stakeholders through series of virtual webinars. It is in furtherance of this agenda that three virtual webinar workshops are planned for the next couple of weeks to inform the relevant target groups.
The initiative is supported by the IFC, under the Ghana Investment Climate Advisory Project, funded by SECO. Two communication tools have been produced to aid the campaign in the form of a training user guide and an introductory video that simplifies the Companies Act to make it easy to understand.
The focus of this public education campaign include the following groups:
- Government Agencies and institutions whose mandates help Private Sector Enterprises (Ministry of Trade and Industries, Ghana Investment Promotion Center, National Board for Small Scale Industries, Banks and other financial institutions).
- Business Associations and Business Groups such as Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI), Institute of Directors (IOD), Private Enterprise Federation (PEF)
- Professional bodies such as Institute of Chartered Accountants and Auditors, Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisers, Ghana Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, Ghana Bar Association among others.
The Companies Act 2019 creates a new independent office to be named, Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC), which shall focus solely on the registration and regulation of all businesses in Ghana.
Other important provisions include a Register of Beneficial Ownership, Publication of a Companies Bulletin, a new naming system to describe the six (6) different types of Companies regulated by ORC, an on-line registration of Companies, A sample Provision of schedules of a Company Constitutions, New rules for major transactions and new powers for shareholders, etc.
The Act requires Companies to prepare and file reports on their activities for every year. Failure to file the reports will attract sanctions, including fines, from the ORC.
