By Eric Appah Marfo
Accra, April 20, GNA — Officials from the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA), Tanzania, have visited the Registrar of Companies (ORC) to study the implementation of Beneficial Ownership (BO) Disclosure.
The engagement afforded the two Departments an opportunity to draw from each other’s experiences and strengths, and deepen the already existing relationship.
A Beneficial Owner is one who has substantial and significant financial interest or control over a company. This interest may be direct; as a named member of the company or indirect; via one or more holding company.
Mr Godfrey Nyaisa, Tanzanian Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Registrar of Companies, BRELA explained that his outfit visited Ghana to learn about all issues related to BO since Ghana was one of the first countries in Africa to champion it.
He said amongst other things, they came to study Ghana’s league of framework in terms of legalities and how she had managed to succeed on issues of BO and the processes navigated to achieve significant success.
The CEO added that they were interested in witnessing the ORC’s Information Technology Systems and how Ghana was using these systems to capture BO and implement these best practices when they returned to Tanzania.
Mr Nyaisa said in the near future, they hoped to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ORC to promote such knowledge sharing engagements between both Departments.
He urged Ghanaians and other African countries to patronise Made-in-Ghana and African-made products to boost their economies.
Mr Samuel Osei Bekoe, Economist and Governance Expert on BO Disclosure at the ORC, said the visit would also allow officials from BRELA to study other Business Registration approaches that Ghana had.
He said the visit was an indication that Ghana’s BO implementation was relatively advanced, however, Tanzania had developed a more robust online systems for easy filing of BO Disclosure.
Mr Bekoe said Ghana had a more comprehensive BO form as compared to Tanzania and were ahead in terms of BO implementation sequencing.
He said BRELA had an active online systems which Ghana was struggling to have and would learn from them in that area.
Mr Bekoe said one of the key challenges for both Departments had to do with verifying information submitted by Companies from the Beneficial Owners and this required a very expansive integration between the Agency and other Agencies within respective countries.
“So in Ghana for instance, there has to be a clear integration between ORC, Ghana Revenue Authority, most of the competent authorities and by enforcement agencies to make sure that they are integrating data on individuals to verify the identities of BO. Similar for Tanzania.”
He advised African countries to allow officials of their Business Registration Departments to frequently embark on such study tours to other nations to strengthen their knowledge in BO Disclosure and deepen relationship in other areas.
Mr Bekoe urged various institutions to build capacity on BO Disclosure to be able to file the right and accurate information.
GNA