Business Registration

The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) is the agency of government responsible for providing business registration, civil registration, intellectual property, and insolvency services. Investors are required to provide proof of registration to financing institutions before accessing traditional financial products. All business registration processes, procedures and requirements are now digitalized and available on the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) website at https://ursb.go.ug/business-registration-2/. Startups in Uganda often cite complicated business registration procedures as a bottleneck. However, since 2012 when company law in Uganda was reformed and a new legislation, the Companies Act 2012 was put in place, several changes that will favor startups were introduced in relation to company formation and management. One of the landmark changes was the introduction of a single member company. Unlike before 2012 where every company had to be constituted of at least two members, a single person, be it individual (natural person) or corporate (artificial entity) may register a company as sole member and shareholder. Section 4 of the Act provides that any one or two persons may for lawful purposes form a company by subscribing their names to the memorandum of association or registering the company as provided under the Companies Act. Single Member Companies have the Companies (Single Member) Regulations, 2016 which provide the procedure for their registration.