Necessary business Registrations

I am happy to announce that our business, F.L.I.C.C Investments cc, is finally registered for all the necessary registrations as a business in Namibia. Here I will walk you through what it takes to get each.

1. Ministry of Trade and Industry 

I previously blogged about how to register a business with the Ministry. Find the post here: Registering a business in Namibia  

 

     2.  Ministry of Finance

You neeed to register your business with the ministry, they deal with all tax issues (income tax deductions, VAT certificates, etc.). They require you to have a business bank account (it can be a personal account) and the application form asks for the bank's stamp to confirm the account.

We import some of our merchandise from abroad, so we needed to apply for a VAT certificate which is required to in order get an import/export certificate in order to anything into/out of the country. You also applly for this certificate with the Ministry of Finance.  

     3. Social Security Commission (SSC)

This is for the employees benefits mostly. It includes services such as leave, pension, death benefit fund and insurance. We currently have 5 employees. Every time one applies for a tender, it is required that one gets a certificate of good standing from the SSC (as well as the Ministry of Finance) and you have to have been registered with the SSC in order to get this certificate. The certificate of good standing is specific and once off, you have to re-apply at every occassion you need one.

     4. City/Town Municipality

This is basically to register the business in the municipal area where the business exists. The Municipality come over to your facilities and make sure that the environment is at least minimmaly suitable for running a business. They also give you a certificate of good standing if you have good sanitation, suitable environemntal for the workers, necessary convenience for the customers and so forth. This registration requires you to get the consent of your neighbors of a certain distance from you (depending on the type of business). 

     5. Small and Medium Entrepreneur (SME)

This registraton is optional and only beneficial to one's business. SMEs Competitiveness Consultancy (Pty) Ltd is a consultancy firm known by the acronym SMEs Compete that helps Namibian SMEs to grow business, create wealth and employment. SMEs Compete provides assistance and support for income growth and job creation in the Namibian SME sector. The primary objective of the firm is to improve entrepreneurial, management, marketing and information technology skills of SMEs in Namibia. Read more about them here: http://www.smecompete.com/