All companies and entities have been instructed by the Office of Registrar of Companies (ORC) to file all their annual returns with the office latest by December 31, 2022 or risk being eliminated from the Companies’ Register.

The Office of Registrar of Companies (ORC) has indicated that, this initiative was one of its directive to maintain an accurate and reliable data on companies in the country, and to delete dormant and defaulting ones in the Register in accordance with the Companies Act 2019(Act 992).

According to the ORC, there are more than 110,000 dormant and defaulting companies on their Register which had not filed any annual returns over the past five years after their incorporation.

Mr. Nicholas Ofori Obeng-Twum, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the ORC, disclosed that, the clean-up exercise which had entered the second phase would have about 2,584 companies and businesses put in state of inactive, since they would not be able to produce files for their annual returns. Hence, these companies will eventually be stopped from operating effective January 2023.

“These dormant and defaulting Companies designated as inactive cannot be electronically searched on in the Registrar system and this will technically connote that they don’t exist.
“Companies and entities both private and Limited by Shares, and by Guarantee such as Schools, Churches, Associations, Fun Clubs, NGO’s Foreign/Domestic, Foundations, Civil Society Groups (CSO’s), Councils, Charity Groups are all expected to file their annual returns with the Office.”
Mr. Nicholas Ofori Obeng-Twum

Failure To Submit Files Will Attract Sanctions

According to Mr. Nicholas Ofori Obeng-Twum, all companies and entities that fail to file their annual returns will bear the sanction consequences stated in the Companies Act.

“We will enforce sanctions according to the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992), Section 289 (5) which implies that, a Company can be struck off the Register if it fails to file its Annual Returns on time or fails to notify the Registrar of Companies of a change in its Registered office or Principal Place of Business in a timely manner.”
Mr. Nicholas Ofori Obeng-Twum

The Office of Registrar of Companies has further instructed all companies to file the appropriate ‘Suffix or Ending’ for their Companies and adopt a ‘Constitution’ to replace the ‘Regulation’ in accordance with Section 24,25,27 and 301 of the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992) by the end December 2022.

The ORC revealed that, the filing of ‘Change of Name’ was significant to help distinguish between Public and Private Companies, to halt Private Companies taking in public funds, to forestall public deceptions and for easy identification of the type of Company and entity they are.

Mr. Obeng-Twum in conclusion urged the entire public to be on the lookout against fraudsters flaunting themselves as officers of the ORC and directing people to send mobile money or risk being eliminated from the Companies’ Register.