21 Jul 2016

Office of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property (ROCIP) was transformed and established as a parastatal called Companies and Intellectual Authority (CIPA) in 2011. Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Moiseraele Goya said the administrative transfer of ROCIP and CIPA took place on November 1, 2014 and that the transition phase was now complete.

Mr Goya was answering a question in Parliament  on behalf of Minister of Investment Trader Industry, Mr Vincent Seretse. He said due to budgetary constraints, CIPA has no plans to open an office in the Ghanzi District.

However, the authority aims to leverage ICT to implement an online registration system through the Business Registry Reform Programme funded by the New Zealand Government. Mr Goya said through this programme, CIPA will be providing the registration of companies and business names services online, which would eliminate the need to open new offices and for clients to travel long distances to access services.

He said the project is expected to go live during the first quarter of 2017/18. He was responding to a question from Ghanzi South MP, Christiaan De Graaff, who had wanted to know whether there were any plans to set up offices or satellite offices for the Registrar of Companies in the Ghanzi District, in view of the long distance that clients from this area endure currently to the Maun and Gaborone offices. ENDS