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MBABANE – In what is set to shake up the business community, all companies will be expected to re-register electronically once the review of the Companies Act 2009 is complete.

The exercise is at a consultative stage, and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade hopes to implement it, possibly, by the end of next year.

Director of Investment Roadmap under the ministry, Albert Chibi yesterday revealed that they were at an early stage of the process but were confident they would have the bill ready soon.

He said once New Act becomes law; they shall open a one year window for all companies to have registered electronically in order to move away from the hard copy system.

Transition

“At present, we have facilitators from New Zealand and the United States helping us to work through this transition.

“We are confident that this process will be a success as other countries in the region have done this successfully,” he said.

Lawyers and accountants came together to deliberate on these issues at City Court in Mbabane yesterday.

This was during a consultative session organised by the Ministry.

Chibi implored that government may consider mitigating the cost of re-registration though this was not a guarantee.

He said moving information from hard to soft copy manually was pointless as part of the information may be lost.

“During the transition period, companies will be allowed to continue to operate, so we anticipate less problems,” he said.

Uncomfortable

A majority of the stakeholders at the roundtable were uncomfortable with the position that existing companies would be compelled to pay from their pockets for re-registration. For them, the exercise would be too costly. They said government should be taking companies out of the register at its own cost. The New Companies Act, meanwhile, intends to do away with the terms, Public or Private.

It proposes one company form, with an unlimited number of shareholders.

It also seeks to do away with the requirement of a Memorandum, Articles of Incorporation, or Declaration.

Instead, a single constitution governing internal operations may be presented.

The Company’s Act 2009 is viewed as having been a step forward, but it is already dated.