Your updates are needed, Brela tells ‘limited’ firms
What you need to know:
- The agency said all activities would now be conducted online, warning that after six months companies that would not have complied would be blocked from services such as increasing capital investment
Dar es Salaam. The Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (Brela) has issued a six-month ultimatum to over 200,000 limited liability companies operating in the country to update their information or else face difficulties in accessing services.
The updates can be done through the Online Registration System (ORS).
The agency said all activities would now be conducted online, warning that after six months companies that not have complied would be blocked from services such as increasing capital investment, change in chief executive officers, or relocating to new offices because the system has integrated with other institutions.
Its CEO Frank Kanyusi, told The Citizen recently that since the online registration was started last month more than 200 new companies have been registered, saying the target was to list at least 50 firms per day.
“We call upon limited companies that were registered before the new system was put in place to update their information into the new system. This being an ongoing process, we give them six months to complete the updating,” he said.
Even though the ORS was launched last month, registration of trademarks and other services will take effect in January, next year.
Mr Kanyusi said Brela integrated the system with other government agencies such as the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to ease payment of taxes and access to related services, hence the call to update their information.
He said Brela was a key government institution in the journey towards an industrial economy. The agency’s acting deputy registrar Intellectual Property, Ms Loy Mhando, said companies requiring trademarks for their products could now access the service within two months instead of six months through the online system. According to the Doing Business Report 2018 by the World Bank, Tanzania was ranked 162 among 190 countries on starting a business, scoring 73.03 points, (0.66 per cent) from 72.37 points it scored in 2017.
According to Mr Kanyusi, Tanzania joins other countries in Africa that have been adopt the online system that speed up registration.
Such countries include Nigeria, Zambia, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa.
This year the agency plans to register 20,000 local companies, 4,000 foreign companies, 60,000 business names, 60 patents, 10,000 trade and services marks as well as 30,000 business licences.
