All companies to declare beneficial owners before incorporation – Registrar General’s Department

The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) has revealed that the new Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) aims to ensure that business owners declare the beneficiaries of a company’s success before they will be incorporated.

The new law will prevent individuals, particularly politically exposed persons, from using other persons as directors or shareholders of a company they own or have a majority stake in.

The Registrar General, Jemima Oware in an interview with Joy Business, explained the move will help enforce transparency in business ownership in the country as well as prevent money laundering and terrorism funding.

She also added that, the law will eliminate instances where individuals, politically exposed, are awarded multiple contracts by the government as a result of fronting other individuals as directors and shareholders of two or more companies directly owned by them.

A beneficial owner is a person(s) according to the Companies Act (2019), who directly or ultimately owns or exercises substantial control over a person or company and has substantial economic interest in or receives substantial economic benefits from a company.