In Rwanda, business licences only an hour away

Registering a business in Rwanda will now take just an hour.

This puts the country miles ahead of other member states of the East African Community.

In Kenya, it takes between three weeks and a month, or even longer to register a business.

The Rwanda Development Board made the announcement barely a month after the World Bank billed Kigali as the most business friendly country in the region.

Its Doing Business survey cited Rwanda as having made major strides in business registration by reducing the period from 30 days to a week, then to three days, a day and now to just an hour.

The survey found that starting a business takes just two procedures in Rwanda while entrepreneurs must go through 11 to 18 steps in other EAC member states.

All one requires is an online connection to the RDB website http://org.rdb.rw, and from the comfort of their offices, home or a cyber cafe, get a company registered.

“You have a choice. You can either come to RDB offices or register a company wherever you are, as long as you have access to the Internet,” Clare Akamanzi, chief operating officer, RDB said recently when she launched the service.

Ms Akamanzi said RDB will however, retain the hard copy registration system.

A statement released by RDB said the online system provides a single registration point where clients will have interface with a single agency by filling a single consolidated dossier.

The online registration form is then confirmed by a certificate and a single identifier is signed by the Registrar General of Companies.

The system also connects to the Social Security Fund of Rwanda, Rwanda Revenue Authority and National Institute of Statistics.

Clients will receive signed certificates after submitting all relevant documents online and payments using a Credit/Visa Card.

By logging in to www.org.rdb.rw, a client can access the business registration database with aggregated information including specific business identification number, name, business activities, geographical location and verified hard copies.

The development comes amid persistent complaints that the time spent registering a business is among the several obstacles businesses face because of the formalities involved.

“In Kenya, entrepreneurs interact with numerous agencies including the Registrar of Companies, Revenue Authority, and Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Labour, Social Security Fund, health authority and town planning departments as well as commercial banks,” notes the World Bank report.