THE Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) has this year registered more than 22,000 businesses across the country.
The business entities were registered between January and September 2014, with 5,000 being registered from August to September this year.
PACRA public relations officer Vaida Bunda said the 10 economic sectors that were leading in terms of registration were in general trading, suppliers, construction, transport, contractors, consultancy, mining, farming and engineering.
Ms Bunda said in an interview that the Agency was hopeful that the registration levels would increase significantly with the opening of a provincial office in Kabwe, Central Province.
“We have from January to September 2014 registered over 22,000 businesses across the country. We hope that registration levels will increase significantly with the opening of the provincial office in Kabwe. The opening of the Kabwe office brings the number of operational offices in the country to 13,” she said.
The presence of PACRA countrywide had helped ease and reduce the cost of conducting business as people did not have to travel long distances to access registration services.
The Agency was working on new innovations such as online payments that would make it easy for the business community to register their businesses and file annual returns.
Another significant innovation to be introduced in 2015 was the PACRA call-centre to be based at its head office in Lusaka.
“It is hoped that the call-centre will reduce the number of people visiting the customer service centres for queries as they will be able to call for advice on all the services offered by PACRA.
The Agency pledged to continue with innovations that would ease business with various clients and sensitize people on the importance of formalizing their businesses.
Please PACRA can you make all the companies and business under your records to be searchable in your online data base? You can charge a minimal fee for banks and other financial institutions who the records for due diligence, risk management and compliance purposes.
@Mukatendwa, great advisory there! I only hope someone in Pacra management will peek here to borrow your advice.
However, I’m disappointed by the lack of interest from Zambians to discuss such issues of national importance. Issues which have a direct correlation with development. If it was politics this story could’ve recorded over 100 posts. Such is the kind of people we’ve become. Lazy and only looking to politics. I cry for my beloved Zambia
@The Engineer/ Business Strategist you are very right. We have less people into entrepreneurship and more interested in just politics. How I look forward to a day in Zambian when no one will attend any political rallies or carry any political affiliation card but instead worry about creating an opportunity for the jobless zambian to have a job. Am happy to say that our company is one of those 22 000 that was registered this year in the IT sector. It is also worrying that few people are entering into the IT sector cause this is what is revolutionizing the 21st centurary.
LETS BE ENTERPRENEURIAL ZAMBIANS PLEASE AND TALK LESS, POLITICS HAVE FAILED US, LETS NOT ASK WHAT ZAMBIA CAN DO FOR US BUT WHAT WE CAN DO FOR ZAMBIA. ALL THE BEST DEAR ENTERPRENEURIAL ZAMBIANS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!