10 Apr 2018

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo has presented to Parliament, the Companies Re-Registration Bill of 2018 to allow existing companies to migrate accurate and reliable data to a new online system through a seamless and conjoined process.

Ms Kenewendo said the Bill, would among others facilitate the development of the Online Business Registration Systems (OBRS) that aims to improve the overall efficiency in business registration.

The Bill also provides for existing companies that have not applied for re-registration to be restored to the register of companies and the procedure to be followed for such process.

Under this Bill, there is provision for companies to be exempted from paying accumulated outstanding annual return fees during the transition period of the Bill and the minister is also given powers to make regulations.

Contributing to the Bill, MP for Sefhare-Ramokgonami, Ms Dorcas Makgato said she appreciated the Bill as it would restore confidence to investors.

She said online processes were a way to go because most countries have experienced positive effects on their economies through such.

Nkange MP, Mr Edwin Batshu said he supported the Bill, but noted that the registrars should guard against duplication of names which might happen during transition period, adding that there should be a contingency in place to guard against that.

He also recommended that ministry should invest adequately to cover the length and breadth of the country for those companies that do not have necessary resources or access to information.

Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said the Bill was about governing the migration of existing companies into digitalised framework.

In this regard, he said inherently, the Bill was placing the honours for the process of application for the digitisation on the companies; hence, he does not believe the entire honours should be on the companies.

MP Gaolathe also said it was not clear as to what would happen to those companies that did not re-register within the transition period, adding that the minister should clarify the legal status for such companies.

Specially Elected MP, Dr Unity Dow said it was not clear as to how long the registrar would respond to those that had re-registered, adding that the transition period should not be too tight since some companies had been in existent since 1966.

Mahalapye East MP, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso said the Bill was long due because the ease of doing business had always been a topical issue.

Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse also supported the Bill, noting that company registration had been sluggish because of the lengthy processes involved in registering businesses.

He said many investors had experienced bottlenecks of having to engage middlemen to register for them, thereby incurring costs in the process, which he said in an endeavour to improve the ease of doing business, the minister should address those.

Mahalapye West MP, Mr Joseph Molefe said the roll-out of re-registration should reach out to districts where there are no Companies and Intellectual Property Authority offices. ENDS