Registration attracts new business

Contractors will benefit enormously if they are registered because that means they will be doing formal business which termed as benefit of business formalization.

Mr Robert Mugabe the manager business registration Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) says contractors cannot bid competitively unless they are registered.

“When competing for business, say supply of stationery, they will ask you for registration certificate. If you are not registered, you are locked out of the competition,” he says.

According to Mr Mugabe being registered comes has a series of benefits. In case you need a loan from any bank, they will be interested in whether your company is registered. So if you are registered, you stand high chances of getting a loan or government support.

He adds that when a contractor is registered, they stand very high chances of getting on the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) pre-qualification list.

Getting investor licence 
Mr Mugabe points out that for a contractor to get issue an investment licence from the Uganda Investment Authority, they need to have a certificate of registration.

He mentions one of the captivating aspects in doing business as acquiring a trade name that identifies with your brand.

Registration also eventually becomes a marketing tool because when you are registered your company becomes legal. This denotes that the public will trust you since you will be operating within the law.

Mr Mugabe stresses the issue of liability where a company’s liabilities are different from the owner. That’s to say when you own a company, the debts are not yours as the owner. So in case of defaults, debtors stop at the company not you as an individual.

Authenticity
When a company is registered it gets business from consumers since after going through a serious bidding process, the winner gets the business. But this follows serious scrutiny to know their authenticity.

Mr Hamza Mwonge, a business expert and founder of Uganda National Institute of Records Management, says one of the advantages of registration to a contractor is that it creates a good public image to the organisation but that’s if they perform their job well.

“Through registration, contractors get to know of their years of doing business since some can be given 10 years others leased for 49 years and are evaluated and they are informed of the reasons for their failure so they can work on it and be successful next time”, he says.

Going by the law
Registration according to him enables contractors keep within the law since they are required to start complying with the laws of the country like paying taxes, not doing shoddy work.