Registerar-General’s Department To Delete 100,000 Companies From List.

The Registrar-General’s Department will this month begin the delisting of dormant organisations from the Companies Register.

“This will be the first batch of companies to be delisted this month out of the over 100,000 companies registered since 2011,” the statement added.

The delisting will affect companies which fail to comply with the Department’s directive to file their annual returns or update their records.

These companies are Public/Private Companies Limited by Shares, Public/Private Companies Limited by Guarantee (Associations, Fun Clubs and Churches), Private Unlimited Companies and External Companies.

A statement issued by the Registrar, Mrs Jemima Oware, said the exercise had become necessary after the end of the three months validation process conducted by the Department from July to September, 2021.

The exercise was to review a sampled group of companies not in good standing with the Department.

The Registrar stated that 257,241 companies existing in the database had not filed their returns or amendments with the Department since 2011.

The statement also said 670, 282 companies in the legacy system (old database) had not carried out the update of their data dubbed “Re-registration” as of March, 2020.

It said the delisting process will commence with 3,100 companies being taken off the Companies Register.

The Registrar, therefore, urged defaulting companies (whether in operation or not in operation) to take measures to regularize their business and update their records with the Department to avoid being delisted.

The statement said any person with knowledge about a company’s non-existence or having no more interest in the company’s name or willfully wanting to wind-up or dissolve the company, or being no more interested in the company’s business name should write to the Registrar-General indicating such intentions.

The Provision under Section 289 of the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992) states that a company can be stricken off the register due to the failure of the company to file its annual returns on time or due to a change in the company’s registered office and principal place of business without notifying the Registrar of Companies.

The Act mandates the Registrar of Companies to wind up companies whose offices are known not to be in operation, after notices and a moratorium have been given to such companies to file their Annual Returns and yet have not complied.

A company’s status after being struck off would be classified as inactive and would not be able to be accessed for any business transaction for the next 12 years, except by a court order to the department to restore it to a status of good standing in the companies register.

It said the Department, in accordance with the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992), made three publications on their website and the national dailies serving notice of their intent to undertake its maiden clean up exercise of the Companies Register to make it accurate and credible.

“Two notifications were earlier issued on 12th May and 1st December 2020, with the final notice published on 19th March, 2021,” it said.

The Department entreated defaulting companies to visit its website to find the first batch of Companies listed for deletion or find them in the National dailies.

The statement said Company Officials, who find the name of their companies in the published list could still file their Annual Returns with the Department to avoid being delisted by the end of October, 2021.

It said the exercise to delist companies would continue until the end of December, 2021.

The next batch of businesses to be sent notices to would be the Companies, Partnerships and Business Names in the Legacy Data from 1963 to 2011, who have still not updated their records with the Department dubbed ‘Re-registration.

The Department, therefore, urged defaulting businesses to file their Annual Returns, Renewals, Amendments or update their records dubbed “Re-registration” to avoid being delisted.

It said the end of the exercise would ensure a credible, reliable and updated Register of Companies, Partnerships and Business Names that were carrying out business in compliance with the different Acts governing their operations.