Githu bets on new business listing board to spur start-ups
President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) is taken through the process of a one- day company registration at the State Office during the launch of the service in June 2014. PHOTO | PSCU
Attorney- General Githu Muigai is banking on the newly created Business Registration Service Board to ease entry of start-ups into the market one year after reforms initiated by his office failed to produce results.
Prof Muigai wants the board members, among them top corporate talent and government officials, to speed up the ongoing companies’ registry automation to cut the process of registration to just one day.
The board, chaired by former banker Carol Musyoka, has taken over the business registration function from the Registrar of Companies, which has been blamed for current inefficiencies.
“It is totally unacceptable that in 2016 in a (lower) middle income country you walk into the registry office and still find files stacked up to the roof and manually retrieved by the clerks,” Prof Muigai said Wednesday during the board’s inauguration.
“You should be clicking a button from the comfort of your office when seeking out these services.”
Besides fast-tracking automation of records, the new body will oversee company incorporation, operation, management and partnerships.
The automation is expected to boost transparency and spare business owners the hassles of travelling to Nairobi and queuing at the State Law Office.
The State Law Office had in 2014 promised to cut company registration period to one day in a system that would allow users to register their businesses online but that is yet to be realised.
It takes 26 days to start a company in Kenya compared to the global average of 20 days, according to a last year’s report by World Bank on ease of doing business.
In contrast, it takes five days to start a business in Rwanda, which is East Africa’s most competitive economy in the World Bank rankings.
President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Business Registration Act into law last year, paving the way for the creation of the business registration board.
The law seeks to ease the process of opening a business to raise the country’s credentials as an attractive business destination for growth and jobs creation.
The new board also comprises the AG, Solicitor-General Njee Muturi and Trade, Devolution and Planning and the National Treasury PSs. The State Law Office had been blamed for inefficiencies and delays, hampering effective service delivery.
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