Companies Bill to Make Registration Easier

Zimbabwe is working on a bill to reduce the time taken in registering a company in the country.

The Companies and Other Business Entities Bill, which is before Parliament, ushers in the introduction of an Electronic registry in clause 268 for the incorporation and registration of domestic and foreign companies as well as private business corporation.

Offering his opinion on the Bill, Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda said the introduction of an Electronic Registry in the proposed law is highly commendable.

“My understanding of this development is that the process by which a formerly paper-based business registry evolves to a nationally centralized one-stop, automated, web-enabled platform delivering products and services via online transactions and authentication of users and documents,” Mudenda said “This has a bearing on the reduced time spent in registering a company.”
“I understand that under the current law, the registration of a company could take up to three months or more while in other countries in the region it takes at best three days, and two weeks at worst,” Mudenda said.

The Speaker of Parliament also said that he was pleased to see that the Companies Registry in the Companies and Other Business Entities Bill will be regulated updated as part of Darwinian adaptability principle which states that the species that survives is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

“This will ensure that a true and accurate record of Companies and other business entities are readily available,” Mudenda said. “This promotes the transparent ownership of companies.”
“Clearly, government is working in accordance with the founding principles and values of our constitution enshrined in Section 3 of the national Constitution.”

Section 3 of the Zimbabwean constitution sets out founding values and principles which include good governance, supremacy of the constitution, and also recognition of the equality among other things.

The Companies and Other Entities Bill also provides for the decentralisation of the company registry offices to other cities and towns according to the Speaker of Parliament.