The Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) says it has deleted 513,338 business names from its register for defaulting in their renewal with the ORC.
This exercise, it said was in line with Section 5A (2) of the Registration of Business Names Act, 1962(Act 151) on Annual Renewals.
The Act reads: “Without prejudice to any other liability prescribed by this Act, a registration which is not renewed in accordance with this section shall LAPSE and the Registrar may remove from the Register the Business Name of the person whose Registration has lapsed after the expiration of the period prescribed for the renewal.”
Speaking with the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday, the Registrar of Companies, Mrs Jemima Oware, explained that failure to renew a Business Name; namely Sole Proprietorship or a Subsidiary Business Name for a period of three months after the year had ended, left the name opened to be used by anyone interested in the name.
She stated that in order to avoid such business names falling into the public domain, and for anyone of interest to use it after it had been struck off the Business Name Register, all Business Name Owners were entreated to renew their Business Names before the end of April, 2023.
According to her, Business Name Owners could be in good standing by renewing their Business Name through the short code *222# and follow the prompt to make payment on the Ghana.Gov payment platform with their Mobile Money (Momo) wallet or walk into “our Offices across the country and make payment at our in-house Fidelity Bank.”
“To avoid the use of intermediaries and agents when transacting business with the Office of the ORC, we entreat our clients to ignore all calls or text messages from Fraudsters purporting to be ‘lawyers’ or staff of the Office and demanding Mobile Money transfers in order to put their Businesses in good standing.
BY NORMAN COOPER