Mobile company registry to boost Kenya investment climate
Officials at the State Law Office serve clients at the companies registry in Nairobi on Aug 8, 2013. Photo/Phoebe Okall
What you need to know:
Under the e-governance deal signed in Nairobi on Thursday, Kenyans will in the next few days start registering businesses, conduct name searches and pay the attendant fees over their handsets.
The State Law Office is one of the government departments involved in the pilot phase of the e-governance project in the last two years.
The pilot scheme will pave the way for implementation of e-governance in other spheres of public administration, boosting service delivery.
The State Law Office has signed a Sh14 million deal with mobile service provider Safaricom that will allow investors to register companies through a mobile phone as Kenya moves to reduce the cost of doing business.
Under the e-governance deal signed in Nairobi on Thursday, Kenyans will in the next few days start registering businesses, conduct name searches and pay the attendant fees over their handsets. This means that one can register a business without having to travel to the office, saving on time, logistics and paper work.
“It has been terrible that somebody is forced to come all the way from Lodwar just to pay Sh100 in Nairobi,” said Solicitor-General Njee Muturi.
The State Law Office is one of the government departments involved in the pilot phase of the e-governance project in the last two years. The pilot scheme will pave the way for implementation of e-governance in other spheres of public administration, boosting service delivery.
Attorney-General Githu Muigai said the reforms lined up at the department include digitising and decentralising service delivery from Sheria House through the partnership with Safaricom.
The department had earlier introduced online name searches but this had minimal impact without the virtual payment bit, which the new technology has brought on board.
To the business community, the deal signed yesterday signals an end to the long trips to Nairobi for those seeking to access services such as company or society registration at Sheria House.
“We are reinventing the way we deliver services and in the next few days, the long queues that Kenyans associate us with will be no more,” said Prof Muigai.
By cutting the length of time to register a company, Kenya also hopes to improve its international ranking in starting a business. The World Bank currently puts Kenya at position 126 globally with respect to the ease of starting a business.
According to the Doing Business in EAC 2013, Kenya only beats Uganda in the number of days and procedures required to start a business.
In Kenya it takes an average of 10 procedures and 32 days — including 2 weeks to file the deed with the Registrar — to start a business, the World Bank Group says. This compares poorly with Rwanda — the best in the region — where it takes only two procedures and three days to start a business.
Use of mobile phone in registration is expected to boost efficiency at the Registrar of Companies’ office, helping to narrow the competitive gap with Tanzania in the pursuit of international investors. Tanzania had upped its stake last year when it digitised its registered company names, enabling name search to be done quickly online.
In Kenya, the government is handling increased volumes as small businesses register their ventures to take advantage of State projects and opportunities in the counties.
The number of applications for registration has increased fivefold to 500 a day. Requests for business name clearances have increased to 300 a day in response to the government relaxing procurement rules to boost participation of SMEs in State tenders.
“These requests have particularly gone up in the last few weeks after the county governments started to invite tender bids publicly,” said the Registrar-General Bernice Gachegu.
The partnership is being driven by the Go-to-market arm of Safaricom which targets business with government, civil society, SMEs and corporate sectors. The partnership will be expanded to cover wedding registrations, allowing the citizens to make payment by M-Pesa.
“The ability to register and track registration process will particularly benefit citizens from far-flung areas whose fundamental rights have been infringed upon in the current delays,” said Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.
Under the deal, the telecoms firm is expected to build a wide area network to enable real-time communication between Sheria House and its 12 regional offices across the country.
The Safaricom’s contact centre will also be opened to handle enquiries channelled by the public to the State Law Office.
