The Office of The Registrar of Companies (ORC) is to strike out 2,584 dormant and defaulting Companies from its Companies’ Register.
The exercise is part of the second phase of the clean-up exercise, which began in the early part of 2022.
A statement issued in Accra by the Company said the exercise would last until December 2022.
It said the dormant Companies disregarded the ORCs’ orders for all Companies to submit their annual returns and financial statements or risk having their names removed from the Companies Register.
Out of the approximately 100,000 dormant Companies targeted for the exercise, the Office had already struck out 2,788 Companies and made them inactive during the first phase of the clean-up exercise.
“This means 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,” it said.
Professional Bodies, External Companies, Private/Public Companies Limited and Unlimited by Shares, Private/Public Companies Limited by Guarantee (Schools, Churches, Associations, Unions, Fun Clubs, etc.) are among the affected companies.
The exercise will be conducted in accordance with Section 289 of the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992), which states 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.”
The ORC urged all defaulting and dormant Companies whether active or not, to submit their annual returns by December 31, 2022, to avoid being struck out from the Companies Register by the end of the year.
It also called on the Companies and businesses that had not updated their records with the Office, often known as “re-registration,” and were established between 1960 and 2011 to do so by the end of 2022.
The statement said the late filing of the annual returns would attract a charge of GH₵ 450.00, and the filing fees for beneficiary ownership information and annual returns remained GH₵ 50.00 and GH₵ 60.00, respectively.