Brela threatens to revoke registration of 5,000 dormant firms

Dar es Salaam. The Business Registration and Licensing Agency (Brela) yesterday announced its intention of revoking registration of 5,676 companies, which it claims to be dormant and clean its book of local and international firms operating in Tanzania.

The state-run agency said there are some of the dormant companies which have not submitted their either annual returns or financial statement for up to 50 years so far, failing to comply with the legal requirements.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, May 27, Brela chief executive officer Godfrey Nyaisa said the agency would not continue to embrace inactive companies.

“There are business names and brands other people would want to use but they cannot do so because such names and brands appear already occupied. This is a big challenge which we want to address,” said Mr Nyaisa.

According to him, the notices will be provided in three phases, the first two phases will be 30 days each, and the third will be 90 days to provide an opportunity for owners to confirm whether their companies are active or not.

“Since my appointment into Brela office, one of the challenges I have faced is the presence of many companies that do not operate or have any commercial activity in the register,” he said.

Once the companies are deregistered, they will also lose all the assets, or until the owners of the company gets court approvals to restore the company to the register of companies.

“We will advertise these companies in various newspapers and media with the aim of informing the owners about the intention to cancel them and also to inform the public about the intention,” he insisted.

Mr Nyaisa added that some of the reason for the companies to remain dormant include failure to submit either financial statements or annual returns, lack of business capital, overwhelming conflicts among the owners, and failure to fulfill their intended purposes.

He said that the companies will be published in print and multi-media for the owners to know the Brela intention of deregistering them.

On the target for the first and second round of deregistration include some 5,284 companies registered locally and some 392 others registered outside Tanzania.

Last year, the government urged all companies to disclose their respective beneficial owners but until January 2022, only 14,026 companies complied with the requirement.

The government which extended the deadline for another six months starting January 1, 2022 stated that the turnout was just about 14 percent of its expectations.