PACRA sees surge in business registrations

…attributes this to increased CDF allocation

OVER 36, 000 businesses have been registered by the Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) in the first three quarters of 2022, an increase of 25 percent owing to a surge in funding to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

These registrations include 22, 000 business names and 14, 000 limited companies, all registered between January and September 2022.

It has also continued receiving applications for the protection of various Intellectual Property Rights, leading to 1, 432 Trademarks being registered during the same period.

This is according to the PACRA Business Development Manager, Ms Vaida

Njobvu who pointed out that the agency has therefore exceeded its annual registration target of 28,620.

Ms Njobvu said this was a significant increase, as PACRA had exceeded its annual registration target by over 25 percent, three months before the year ended.

“During the said period last year, the Agency registered 23,206 businesses translating into a 37.9 percent increase this year. This surge in registrations has been attributed to the improved efficiency levels in service delivery owing to the full automation of the registration system.

“In addition, the government’s policy direction to increase funding to the CDF has immensely contributed to the upsurge in registrations,”Ms Njobvu said in a statement.

On trademarks, Ms Njobvu said the agency continued receiving applications for the protection of various Intellectual Property Rights.

To this end, she said, 1, 432 trademarks were registered against an annual target of 2, 700.

She mentioned that 1, 292 trademarks were renewed against an annual target of 1, 018 during the period under review.

Further to these trends, Ms Njobvu pointed out that nine patents were granted while 103 were renewed during the period under review.

“PACRA also registered 17 Industrial Designs against 28 applications during the same period. A total of 114 Copyright registrations were recorded and 2,212 Holograms affixed on audio-visual works. This is a slight increase in comparison to the same period last year,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms Njobvu said PACRA recorded a rising trajectory of over 40 percent increase in compliance levels for annual return submissions during the first three quarters of 2022 as compared to the same period last year.

She said over 88, 000 businesses this year filed their annual returns while 62, 582 businesses were compliant last year stating that “this is against an annual target of 90,000.”

In relation to the Collateral Registry, Ms Njobvu said PACRA had registered a total of 1, 310 financing statements.

“This is a steady increase from the 769 financing statements registered last year, during the same period under review,” she said.