Data obtained from the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) reveals that new business name and company registrations for January 2020 hit close to 7, 000, the Goldstreet Business can confirm. This continues the significant increase in new business registrations that started last year.

Comparatively, new business registrations recorded during the second half of 2019 registered a total of 48,469, exceeding the first half 2019 figure of 43,986.

The growing zeal accounting for business operators to formally incorporate their businesses, according to the Department, is as a result of its strategy in the area of improving efficiency and customer experience in the business registration process, which is aimed at putting in place measures to enhance the ease of doing business in the country.

The types of entities registered include Subsidiary Business Name, Company Limited by Guarantee, Partnership, Company Limited by Shares, Sole Proprietor and External Company.

In January this year, sole proprietor category recorded 4,841 new registrations whereas those of Company Limited by Shares and Company Limited by Guarantee also recorded 1,299 and 502 respectively.

Similarly, statistics released by the RGD indicate that out of 48,469 registrations made in the second half of 2019, a total of 35,342 were registered under the sole proprietor category as Company Limited by Shares and Company Limited by Guarantee recorded 8,995 and 3,701 respectively.

Instructively, the total number of business registrations for 2019 stands at 92,455, a significant increase over 2018 figure of 86, 669.

In developed countries, data such as new business registrations are used by investors, policy making bodies and the private sector to effectively track business activities, measure business confidence and forecast economic growth going forward.

A report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the private sector financing arm of the World Bank – estimates that the private sector provides nine out of 10 jobs in developing countries. The increase in number of business registrations thus gives a strong positive signal about the private sector’s contributions to job creation as well as investment mobilization.

Following the merger of all four starting-a-business application forms namely: Tax Identification Numbers (TINs); Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT); Business Operating Permit application; and Business Registration forms, this initiative has enabled business promoters to fast track the entire business registration process.

This initiative is helping to formalize the economy as the RGD leverages on technology and digitization to improve on administrative systems by automating some processes to ease the cost and time needed to register businesses in Ghana.