Corporate Affairs Commission To Re-register Companies

In line with the Companies Act of 2009, the Corporate Affairs Commission will in two months time start the re-registration of all old companies that have once registered with the Registrar General’s Office, as well as new companies that want to do business in Sierra Leone.
This was disclosed yesterday by the Corporate Affairs Commission’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Madam Michala Mackay in an interview with Premier News at her Fort Street office in Freetown, where she also disclosed that any company in Sierra Leone that wants to close down will have to go through a process, adding that if that company happens to have a debt to settle, it must settle it before it exits the register of the Commission.
Madam Michala Mackay said they have the primary role to supervise the incorporation and regulation of all companies on matters relating to its membership and their liabilities, allotment and transfer of shares, debentures and creating of charges, meetings and proceedings of a company, companies account records and annual returns, among others.
She said Sierra Leone is part of a global market, and that if it is to attract investment, it is imperative that its laws, and in particular the companies law is in line with global trends and best practices. She added that there is need to develop specialised capacity in monitoring the activities of companies and compliance in particular.
The Corporate Affairs Commission’s CEO said the World Bank has 10 topics made up of variety of indicators, one of which is ‘protecting investors’, a category where Sierra Leone was ranked 22nd because there are implemented laws that protect investors.
“In a recent administrative sorting exercise carried out by the Commission, it became obvious that of the 12,000 and odd companies on our register, 75% of these companies are non-compliant in one area or the other. The non-compliant areas are mostly in the areas of lack of notification of change of business address, failure to file notices on change of directors, transfer of shares or increasing share capital without proper approvals, failure to file annual returns and submit accounts and even failure to follow processes for exiting the market through voluntary winding up,” she disclosed.
She said the Commission has reviewed the Companies Act of 2009 to ensure that the laws are adequately protected, and those that have 10% shares in a company will have a document to show so that they will not operate in the dark. She added that no persons under the age of 18 will be capable of being directors and board members of a company, stressing that they can only know the age of a person through a valid identity card.
Madam Michala Mackay, also said the Commission has the mandate to de-register a company that violates the Companies Act of 2009.

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