The Biz Portal application which was launched in November 2019 as part of government’s aim to improve the ease of doing business in South Africa is one of the flagships that have ensured that the business registration process is reduced to less than one day.
This was said by Acting Head of Invest South Africa (Invest SA) at the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), Yunus Hoosen during a briefing on the outcomes of the technical working groups on measures to improve the ease of doing business which took place in Cape Town.
The Biz Portal is an intergovernmental collaboration comprising of the Company and Intellectual Property Commission, Unemployment Insurance Fund, South African Revenue Service and the South African banks, which makes it possible for a company to be registered in a day.
Biz Portal reduces business registration time
Hoosen reported that efforts were underway at improving South Africa’s investment climate and ease of doing business from the current position of 84 to position 50, as per President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address within the next two-years by 2021.
“According to the World Bank rankings, we are ranked at 139 when it comes to starting a business in South Africa. It took a maximum of forty days and one had to traverse through multiple government agencies that ranged from the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and the South African Revenue Service, to name a few,” he said.
“What we have done is that we have now created a paperless system through the establishment of the Biz Portal which is totally automated. One is able to register a company in one day or less in today’s terms. That is the progress we have achieved.”
He added that the company registration process could now be performed seamlessly engaging with all the relevant agencies on the Biz Portal hub instead of having to individually go through seven different steps with different government agencies.
“On implementation of the One-Stop Shops we have since established the Gauteng, Western Cape and the KwaZulu-Natal offices and they are already servicing investors. Stakeholder consultation on the expansion of the Invest SA One-Stop Shops in Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape are continuing,” described Hoosen.
“All supply-chain management processes and refurbishment for the above sites have started for completion at the end of this quarter.”