Registering your company in Ghana is a hustle and a time-wasting experience which can have you frustrated and leave you to resort to using connection guys to help. These guys too aren’t cheap. So you can imagine how refreshing the news felt when I heard you can now register your business entity online now. Registrar General is getting techy. I was excited to see I could check if my business name was available through the Name Search function and reserve the Name as well. But before you get all excited, here’s why I think you should hold off on doing so for now.

I went to the website https://egovonline.gegov.gov.gh/RGDPortalWeb/portal/RGDHome/eghana.portal?_nfpb=true&_st=&_pageLabel=home#wlp_home which I found out was built by a foreign company http://www.crimsonlogic.com/index.html ( what happened to local content? Or there aren’t experienced Ghanaian software engineers to build it?)

You have to create an RGD portal account which offers limited services according to the online guide.

Here at least, I knew I could reserve my business name. but what about the submission of forms and online payment for the process which the video tutorial depicted?

I already had a TIN which I decided to use to create a Portal account.  But I kept getting an error message with acronyms I didn’t understand.

So did that mean I couldn’t proceed? I decided to use the contact us page

Clicking submit didn’t work. There was no phone number or email address. I tried the link for Online chat. Link didn't work as server was unavailable.

I decided to use the Quick Access link to see if I could access the Entity Registeration. This led to another form to complete.

When you get to the ID field, the options aren’t many and I was particularly surprised that there was no field for Passport but for National ID Authority.

No that’s not for passport either. Who even has a National ID card? I ended up using my Driving License number.

Entering my Middle Name didn’t work either.

I tried closing the space between Naa and Oyoo to resolve this error and the error message kept popping up. I deleted my middle name altogether and it worked! Imagine! So I have an account without my middle name showing.

So what could I do with the Quick Access account?

I wasn’t seeing any option for the Entity Registration so I clicked on common services.

I got sent back to the homepage where it seemed I had to log in again.

I admire the efforts of Registrar General to automate its services. But really, this must be done right and must work! I have no clue how much has been spent on this portal but whoever is behind this project needs to work harder at this. The language also must be more friendly for non-techy individuals. Hopefully there will be media tutorials on this when things are actually working. Sighs! 

Have you used the site already? Anything you can share on your experience with it? Any tips?