Business registration agency earns KSh1bn after going digital

The Business Registration Service (BRS) has recorded a 17.8% increase in revenues for the financial year ending June 2023, in what the agency has attributed to increased efficiency after transferring most of it’s services online.
The agency has earned a record KSh1.15 billion in revenues for the fiscal year 2022/23, a significant increase from the KSh977.1 million the previous fiscal year.
Since its establishment in 2015 through the Business Registration Service Act 2015, the agency has steadily grown its revenues by more than 3 times from an initial KSh321.8 million in the 2015/16 fiscal year.
The agency was mandated to administer policies and laws related to the registration of companies, partnerships and corporations doing business under a business name, bankruptcy, hire-purchase, and security rights.
Director-general Kenneth Gathuma attributed the increased revenue collection to reforms including fully digitizing payments, streamlining service delivery and itemizing billing.
“We are seeing the results of the reforms that we have been undertaking to enhance our efficiency in service delivery,” he said.
“The processes that used to be done manually have now been digitized, which has sealed loopholes for revenue leakages. We have also increased the number of our services, boosting our revenues.”
The major driver of revenues is the registration of companies and business names, which comes at a time when Kenyans are listing business entities.
The BRS charges KSh950 for registration of a business name, KSh25,000 to register a limited liability partnership, KSh10,650 for registration of private and public limited liability companies and KSh20,050 for unlimited companies.
The agency also charges KSh10,000 to register a company limited by guarantee, KSh800 for a change of business name, KSh550 for a change of office bearers, particulars of directors and change of address or location.
This comes at a time when new business registrations are growing at a record number as more individuals set up their own businesses at a time when unemployment remains high.
This was especially pronounced during the pandemic when a record number of businesses were established after millions of individuals lost their jobs forcing them to try their hand at entrepreneurship.
For instance, the Companies Registrar registered some 98,302 entities in the 2018/19 fiscal year, but this number grew sharply by 20.6% to 118,609 in 2019/20, which was the first year of the pandemic.
This number has continued to grow since, hitting a record 144,533 in 2022/23, according to the latest data from the agency.