Mandatory company re-registration kicks off in June

Any company that fails to migrate to the Online Business Registration System (OBRS) will be considered non-existent after June next year. The re-registration is the result of a raft of laws passed last year to stamp out economic vices such as money laundering, while enhancing the ease of doing business by shortening the period and processes required to register a business.

Under the new laws, companies on the OBRS will list all shareholders including beneficial owners. In addition, there will no longer be provisions for a company to be “dormant”. Only two statuses will be possible – active and deregistered.  CIPA held a stakeholder briefing with members of Business Botswana this week, where heads of companies were informed that those failing to register their businesses during the 12-month period after June 2019, would have their registration’s terminated.