South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has launched a new portal aimed at significantly speeding the process of registering a business in the country.
The pilot phase of the new BizPortal site allows entrepreneurs to register a business within one day, for ZAR175 (US$12).
Trade and Industry minister Ebrahim Patel said this was a dramatic improvement on turnaround times of 40 days recorded by the World Bank 2020 Ease of Doing Business Report.
Biz Portal also provides South Africans with access to a host of other services to help in starting their company, offered in collaboration with the South African Revenue Services (SARS), the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), and the Compensation Fund (CF).
Aside from company registration, these include tax registration number, domain name registration, B-BBEE certificate, Compensation Fund registration, Unemployment Insurance Fund registration, and business bank account. Currently four major banks are participating on the platform.
The pilot phase will see the system tested and strengthened, while in its next phase Biz Portal will make provision for other services related to running and maintaining a business.
