Registrar-General, Jemima Oware
The Registrar-General’s Department (RGD) has warned that any dormant company that does not take advantage of its validation window will be delisted from the companies’ register by the end of this month, September.
The move aims at sanitizing the nation’s companies register and keeping relevant data to aid socio-economic planning.
A communique signed by the Registrar-General Jemima Oware stated: “We wish to inform the business community and the general public that the RGD will end its validation of dormant companies at the end of September 2021.
“The exercise was to validate dormant companies which complied with the Registrar of Companies’ directive to file their annual returns with the department or risk being delisted from the companies register.”
Companies that could not file their annual returns before the June 30th deadline for any reason were urged to take advantage and comply during the validation period that commenced on July 1st, 2021.
These dormant companies were public/private companies limited by shares; public/private companies limited by guarantee (associations, fun clubs, churches etc.); private unlimited companies and external companies.
Companies are required by the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992) to update their records and file their financials with the Registrar-General eighteen (18) months after incorporation and at every financial year – whether the company is in business operation or not.
Companies that are due for strike-off and still in default after the end of September 2021 will be published in the national dailies and on the department’s website.
A company’s status at this period will be classified as being inactive and will not be able to be accessed for any business transaction for the next 12 years – except by a court order to the department for reinstatement to good standing in the companies’ register.
Defaulted companies have been advised to take the necessary measures to be in good standing with the department if they are still interested in carrying on business with that name.
Meanwhile, dormant and defaulted company officials are being contacted by the department to file their returns with the department before the end of September 2021.
The department urges clients to visit its website to view the list of companies the Registrar-General intends to strike off the register.
Officials of companies that are no longer in business and will not use the name for business, or are no longer in existence, should inform the department through a letter to the Registrar-General or call the clients’ service line.