1) Uganda Registration Services Bureau is mandated to register businesses and intellectual property, conduct civil registrations like marriages, and collect non-tax revenue. 2) Prior to reforms, business registration in Uganda was unpredictable, lengthy, costly and complex, with no online services or linkages between agencies. 3) Reforms streamlined procedures, created a one-stop shop for registration, implemented online services, and established regional offices. Legal reforms updated company laws and increased the registrar's powers.

1. Legal Reform & Business Registry Reform
Presentation at ECRF/CRF 2016 Conference
at City Hall
Cardiff, United Kingdom
Kwesiga Arthur,
Uganda Registration Services Bureau
Tuesday 10 May 2016

2. Uganda

3. Government Agency mandated for;
1.Business Registration– companies and business
names, partnerships, documents, debentures and
chattels.
2.Official Receiver in liquidation of companies and
bankruptcy matters.
•Intellectual Property Rights –registration of
Patents, Utility models, Industrial designs,
Trademarks, Service marks and Copyright and
Neighboring Rights.
•Civil Registration- Marriages and Registration of
Marriages conducted in Uganda
•Collect Non Tax Revenue (NTR)

4. Prior to the reforms in Uganda
• Process and time to register a business was
unpredictable (7-31 days).
• Registration was lengthy and costly and
required assistance of an Attorney
• Registration required a lot of documentation
• No linkages with other agencies i.e Tax body,
banks etc.
• Registration was only at one location i.e Head
office with no online services
• Large informal sector
• Required a lot of movements within the
offices to complete a service
Administrative bottlenecks

5. Legal bottlenecks
•Registration Agency was not autonomous
•legal framework was outdated
• No single member company
• Not harmonized with regional laws
• Did not Incorporate the principles of
Corporate Governance
• Business of companies was limited to stated
objectives (ultra vires rule)
• Minimum age for directors was 21 and
maximum was 70 years
• Limited powers to the registrar
• No provision for electronic filing

6. REFORM PROCESS
• Focused on experience of clients
• Make or become different and simplify
• Move from the present to a future desired state
• Identify Content
• What will change and why
• Process
• How will the change be accomplished
• The human side
• How will people deal with the change
• To shift the paradigm

7. • Streamline bureaucratic procedures
• Standardization: removing the “oral tradition”
• Retain only the necessary procedures, merge others and
removal of redundant ones
• One point access for customer and data entry
• The touch once principal and shared services
• Automatic data exchange between relevant
Agencies
• Better user experience where the whole procedure
of registration is conducted at a single point
• One stop centre concept
• Legal reform to enable best practices e.g online
What needed to be done

8. Challenges during the reform process
• Sabotage by middle men
• Change management e.g shift from manual
to electronic
• Real and perceived institutionalized
corruption
• Creating visible short-term wins
• Lack of common standards for service with
multiple agencies
• Lengthy process of amending business
licensing laws
• Ambiguous organizational structure

9. Reform Process

10. Load Balancing: Simple Flow
Before
After

11. File Re-0rganisation Before
After

12. One-Stop-Shop: Business Registration Conveyor Belt
Get Business
Name Reservation Name Reservation
Process After reforms

13. Legal Reforms
• Company law is updated and caters for
• Provision for online filing
• Single member Company and Regulations
therein
• Harmonized with Regional Company Laws
• Focus on Corporate Governance
• There is no limitation to the objectives
clause
• A company not allowed to give financial
assistance to any person or its subsidiary
• Minimum age for directors reduced to 18
years
• Generally more powers to the registrar
• URSB is an autonomous agency

14. After Reforms
• Takes 1-2 days to register a business
• Process is simplified and does not necessarily
require the services of Attorney/Advocate
• Single registration form to reduce
documentation (developed SME standard)
• Combined process for formalization
(registration, tax authority and local
authorities)

15. After Reforms
• Established online services
• Established regional offices to bring services
closer to the people in the rural areas
• Streamlined structure
• Zero tolerance to corruption
• Gained Public trust
• Attracted more Development Partners
• Professionalised and motivated staff

16. Success factors during reform
• Inter agency cooperation
• MoU’s
• steering mechanism (governance and
coordination structure)
• Unified standard for process, workflows,
and customer service,
• single registration form, silence means
consent, call center
• Capacity building to specialist staff in
licensing agencies
• Joint marketing and communications
strategy
• Increased online services

17. The future registry services
• Increased use of unique ID to identify a
business in all systems
• Use of electronic signatures to eliminate
physical movement of documents e.g.
certificates
• Electronic payment for business registration
to support online application
• Establishing help desk function to assist
online applicants
• Full online application for registration
• Adoption of best practices from other
countries

18. Scanning
Accessing the files
electronically
The Future : EDMS

19. I.D.
(National)
Business
Registration
(URSB)
Taxes
(URA)
Ideal
Solution
Other
Government
partners
The Future : Full Integrated Solution

20. END
Thank you
Kwesiga Arthur
Uganda Registration
Services Bureau