A total of 2,584 “dormant” companies are to set to be delisted from the Ghana’s register of companies for failing to file their Annual Returns and Financial Statements as directed by Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC), the Registrar of Companies, Mrs Jemima Oware has revealed.
These companies include private/public companies limited and unlimited by shares; private/public companies limited by guarantee, including schools, churches, associations, unions, fan clubs, professional bodies and external companies.
The exercise, which will run till the end of the year, is the second phase of the ORC’s clean-up which began earlier this year with the deletion of 2,788 out of the targeted 100,000 companies.
The Registrar of Companies, Mrs Jemima Oware, who made this known yesterday in an interview, said the exercise was being done in accordance with Section 289 of the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992).
“The Section connotes that a Company can be stricken off the Companies Register for failing to file its Annual Returns on time or failing to notify the Registrar of Companies of a change in the Company’s Registered Office and Principal Place of Business,” she said.
According to Mrs Oware , the companies were given adequate time to file their returns in compliance with a directive the Office gave coupled with the publication of their names on the website, yet they failed to adhere to the directive.
The delisting, she said, meant that “those dormant companies cannot be electronically searched on or carry out any changes on their company information in the Register awaiting a full winding up after 12 years.
“Such companies can only be restored by an Order of the High Court to the ORC within 12 years after the publication of the strike off in the Companies Bulletin.”
Mrs. Oware advised all defaulting and dormant companies—whether they were still in business or not—to submit their annual returns by December 30, 2022 in order to avoid having their names removed from the Companies’ Register by the end of the year.
Additionally, she advised firms and companies that were registered between 1960 and 2011 but had not yet updated their records with the ORC, known as “re-registration,” to do so by the end of the year.
“Companies are entreated to change their Auditors who have served for six years in compliance with the provisions of the Companies Act to avoid sanctions. Any Company official with knowledge of the Company’s non-existence or having no more interest in the Company’s Business Name should write to the Registrar of Companies indicating such. Kindly quote this number and date on all correspondence,” she said.
On the penalty for late filing of Annual Returns, Mrs Oware said it was GH¢450.00 while fees for filing Annual Returns and Beneficial Ownership information remained GH¢50.00 and GH¢60.00 respectively.
