Over 300 hundred businesses risk dissolution and removal from the official register over failure to fulfill its annual mandatory renewal of business names at the Office of the Registrar if they fail to do so by January 15 next year.

This was announced by the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) in a public notice dated October 15, 2026.

The annual renewal requirement is under Ghana's Registration of Business Names Act, 1962 (Act 151), which states that a business name that is not renewed annually is deemed to have lapsed, giving the Registrar the power to strike it off the official register.

More significantly, the cancellation means the affected business names will cease to exist legally.

Anyone who continues trading under a cancelled name will be in breach of the law and liable to the applicable sanctions.

To avoid removal, business owners with expired or upcoming renewals have been advised to complete the process at any ORC office or through the USSD short code *222#.The Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) has urged affected business owners to clear any outstanding renewal fees and ensure their registration details are up to date.

This includes notifying the Registrar of any changes to their registered business addresses and the nature of their operations.

The latest directive forms part of the ORC’s efforts to improve the accuracy of Ghana’s corporate register and ensure businesses comply with statutory requirements.

It follows an earlier announcement by the Registrar on plans to strike off 453 companies from the register, while 323 others had already been removed and dissolved in accordance with the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992).

Although the two exercises target different categories of registrations, they are both aimed at ensuring that the corporate register reflects accurate and current business information.

The ORC has also advised business owners who no longer wish to operate under their registered business names to formally write to the Registrar to request their removal from the register.

For further enquiries, affected businesses can contact the ORC’s call centre on 0308249841 or reach the office via WhatsApp and Telegram on 059-952-5774.