The implementation of the one-stop-shop business and online registrations last year has seen the Registrar-General’s Department (RGD) recorded a little above GH¢94.28million in revenue for the 2018, representing almost 30 percent increase in total revenues recorded in 2017 which was GH¢75.2 million.
Out of the over GH¢94 million which was raised last year, GH¢82.1million was transferred into the consolidated fund as revenue for the government.
Meanwhile the number of companies registered by the department in 2018 reduced by 245 bringing the total number of companies registered to 86,669 as against 86,914 in 2017.
Of the total business registrations, online transactions at the RGD saw tremendous growth of over 100 per cent increase, recording 26,438 in transactions as against 12,400 transactions recorded the previous year.
In the same year, the total walk-in applications recorded were 60,231.
The data again shows a significant increase in online registrations. Online transactions increased from a mere 86 in 2015, 2,811 in 2016 and 12,000 in 2017 to the over 26,000 recorded in 2018.
Sole Proprietorship topped the list of businesses registered with 59,239, up from the 8,116-registrations done online in 2017 and 1,722-registrations in 2016.
This was followed by Companies with shares, which also continues to see an upward trend, recording almost 600 per cent increase to 19,669 in 2018, from 3,304 recorded in 2017 and 845 in 2016.
External Company saw the lowest registration online in 2018 recording some 142 companies against 13 in 2017 and 4 in 2016.
On the other hand, Subsidiary Business Name in 2018 for online recorded 675 representing an increase of 597 per cent and 113 for 2017 but 28 registrations in 2016
The growth follows the RGD’s successful implementation of the online registration of companies, as well as the one-stop-shop registration of businesses introduced at the department.
The department under the leadership of Mrs Jemima Oware has seen some tremendous changes aimed at improving business registration with the introduction of functions which are supported by a number of online services, including the e-Shop which allowed company searches, reservation of company names and the booking of marriage ceremonies, amongst others.
Also, as at the end of December 2018, 5,307 Companies and Business re-registration had been entered into the system adding to the 39,602 Re-registrations had been done since January 2015.
Jemima Oware, commenting on the new figures said that most of the reforms being undertaken by the department are to help investors or registrants conduct their end-to-end business registration on the RGD portal and offices without any hustle, while the online is to result in the issuance of an e-certificate.
According to her, it is also to reduce the turnaround time no matter the kind of services one requires from the Registrar General Department be it on the portal or a walk in.
“Linked to the RGD portal is a fully functional e-payment platform which allows payments to be made in the course of online transactions. This is in line with the government’s commitment to deepening leveraging technology to improve the ease of doing business in Ghana and to enhance the business competitiveness of the country,” she said.
Mrs Oware said, in line with the commitment to enhance and enrich customer experience the outfit decided to implement the one-stop-shop business registration and queue management system at the front office to improve customer experience.
The e-certificate and e-shop platforms are end-to-end registration portals developed and deployed by GCNet as part of the broad World Bank sponsored e-Gov project.
It leverages ICT opportunities to generate employment enhancement and growth under the e-Gov application for the Revenue Generating Agencies and the Registrar General’s Department.
Currently, RGD systems are integrated with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) with plans to advance to link up with Ghana Investment Promotion Centre in the exchange of data to facilitate the ease of doing business in Ghana.
The data exchange is to encourage a paperless registration and tax regime aimed at significantly reducing administrative and operational overhead costs.
It will also greatly ease doing business while maximising revenue mobilisation for accelerated development.
