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Institutional Reform and…

Institutional Reform and Development of Companies Registry

About the client

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry

Challenge

Reducing the time and costs associated with business registration and business regulatory processes while providing other incentives for enterprise formalization.

Solution

The project was aimed at the advisory services on institutional reform and development of the Liberia Companies/Commercial Registry including preparations and drafting of legal, organisational and technical input for the establishment of the legal framework and organisational and technical input for the institutional cooperation.

Consultancy services including introduction to international best practices, legal advice and drafting of supplementary legal framework, drafting of plans for institutional cooperation, training program, designing of registration workflow and IT system, HW and network specifications, budgets, draft awareness and information campaign.

Liberia Business Registry System was implemented in the central office and two remote offices. The system is web based and it consists of:

  • Basic LBRS – computerized registration process for LBR staff;
  • Information services LBRS – for any online users searching for information on enterprise;
  • Online services LBRS – for registration of enterprises and amendments online for any registered online user;
  • Web page of LBR with integrated content management system and statistics from basic.

Services provided

  • Preparations and drafting of secondary legal framework;
  • Specifications, procurement and installation of the HW, basic SW and network set-up
  • Development and implementation of the business registration services and procedures including”single-point-registration” services including business registration, tax registration and information sharing with other public institutions, unique ID of business, operation procedures and manuals, and registration forms, online registration and information services;
  • Design and execution of capacity building including training and organisational development;
  • Development of the strategy for the digitization of the currently held business registration records;
  • Preparation of background material, planning and implementing of an awareness program directed to the public and private sector in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and Industry;
  • Designing of M&E system for the monitoring and assessment of the implementation and operationalization of the reform.

Impact

  • Registration times and costs were significantly reduced, leading to significant cost savings for the business community.

The results

38

Liberia’s rank for ‘Starting a Business’ indicator in the WB Doing Business Index has improved from 88 in 2009 to 38 in 2013, once the results of the reform have been measured and acknowledged in the assessment, stating that Liberia made starting a business easier by introducing a one-stop shop.

In 2016

NRD was contracted to provide consultancy services to upgrade Liberia Business Registry System to integrate with Standard Integrated Government Tax Administration System (SIGTAS).