Mrs Jemimah Oware who is the Registrar-General has disclosed that the Tax Identification Number (TIN) will no longer be a prerequisite for the upfront registration of a business, beginning from January 2019.
She, however, said the provision of a digital address would become the new requirement for the registration of businesses.
“This is because the global positioning system (GPS) will indicate to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) where businesses are located so that local government officials can follow up and give businesses operating licences.
"I want to state that beginning next year, only foreigners will require a TIN to register their businesses because our digital platform is being fused with that of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs)," she said.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of a high-level dialogue on good corporate governance in Accra yesterday, Mrs Oware said the provision of a digital address would become the new requirement for the registration of businesses.
Registrar-General Mrs Jemimah OwareNew Companies Act
She also hinted that the current Companies Act, 1963, would be replaced with a new one by the end of the year, a move that was geared towards removing bottlenecks in the old system and making things easier, going forward.
For instance, she said the new regime would set up the Office of the Registrar-General and make it an autonomous body to function properly.
“The bill for the new Companies Act has been approved by Cabinet, as well as the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs of Parliament. We have done the clause-to-clause reading and the bill is now with the Ministry of Justice to be sent back to the floor of Parliament for the second and third readings.
“We are trusting that it will be passed into law by the end of the year,†she said.
Mrs Oware said one of the outstanding features of the new act was the provision made in it for the establishment of the Office of the Registrar of Companies which was to be financially autonomous.
She said that office would be taken out from the Registrar-Generals’ Department and be made an autonomous body with a board drawn from skilled entities such as the Ministry of Justice, the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), academia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG).
“There are a lot of punitive and enforcement mechanisms in the bill as well, so the Office of the Registrar will ensure that due procedure is followed for efficient conduct of business,†she said.
She said the new act would, among other things, do away with commissioners of oath, minimum equity requirement and requirements for objects of registration.
“The Companies Bill has also done away with the provision of a constitution as a requirement for registering a business and you do not need any object too; and this will facilitate the registration process.
 “The act will also ensure that the Inspectorate Division of the Registrar-General’s Department will be revamped to go out to enforce regulations under the Companies Act,†she said.
Read also: These are the things you can't do without a TIN
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