By Kofi Ahovi
The new Companies’ Code (Act 179) of 1963has been presented to cabinet for the second time after it was returned to enable more consultation with stakeholders.
Cabinet returned the revised document to the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department after it found certain portions of the document to be inconsistent.
To resolve this, the ministry held a consultative meeting with stakeholders in Koforidua in the Eastern Region a fortnight ago to rectify the inconsistencies. The document has since been submitted to cabinet for consent.
The draft document was first presented to cabinet early last year for scrutiny and eventual approval. The document when approved would be presented by the Ministry of Justice to parliament for consideration.
The draft of the comprehensive review of the Companies’ Code was completed by a committee headed by a High Court judge and was reviewed by the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department.
The code regulates the registration of various types of business in the country. It came into being in 1963 but since then has never been reviewed, despite changing trends in business registrations and operating structures worldwide.
When passed into law, the reviewed code will among other things encourage the enforcement of the law that requires the regular renewal of business names and the filing of annual returns, and stiffer punishments for not meeting the tenets of the code being proposed.
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, has agreed that the review of one of Ghana’s most important, yet outdated business laws was long overdue and cannot wait further.
Her ministry inherited the review process from the previous administration under the Presidency of John Agyekum Kufuor.
Provisions are also being proposed for business registration numbers issued by the Registrar General’s Department to correspond with a company’s Internal Revenue Service number to improve the tax collection system.
Currently, the department reviews, on average, about 100 business registration applications daily and about 2,000 monthly.
The new Companies’ Code (Act 179) of 1963has been presented to cabinet for the second time after it was returned to enable more consultation with stakeholders.
Cabinet returned the revised document to the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department after it found certain portions of the document to be inconsistent.
To resolve this, the ministry held a consultative meeting with stakeholders in Koforidua in the Eastern Region a fortnight ago to rectify the inconsistencies. The document has since been submitted to cabinet for consent.
The draft document was first presented to cabinet early last year for scrutiny and eventual approval. The document when approved would be presented by the Ministry of Justice to parliament for consideration.
The draft of the comprehensive review of the Companies’ Code was completed by a committee headed by a High Court judge and was reviewed by the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department.
The code regulates the registration of various types of business in the country. It came into being in 1963 but since then has never been reviewed, despite changing trends in business registrations and operating structures worldwide.
When passed into law, the reviewed code will among other things encourage the enforcement of the law that requires the regular renewal of business names and the filing of annual returns, and stiffer punishments for not meeting the tenets of the code being proposed.
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, has agreed that the review of one of Ghana’s most important, yet outdated business laws was long overdue and cannot wait further.
Her ministry inherited the review process from the previous administration under the Presidency of John Agyekum Kufuor.
Provisions are also being proposed for business registration numbers issued by the Registrar General’s Department to correspond with a company’s Internal Revenue Service number to improve the tax collection system.
Currently, the department reviews, on average, about 100 business registration applications daily and about 2,000 monthly.
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