Invest South Africa (Invest SA) on Thursday lauded the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s Biz Portal application.
Invest SA head Yunus Hoosen said the application had ensured that a business can be registered in South Africa in less than one day, where it previously took more than a month’s time.
Biz Portal was launched in November to improve the ease of doing business in South Africa.
“According to the World Bank rankings, we are ranked at 139 when it comes to starting a business in South Africa. It took a maximum of 40 days and one had to traverse through multiple government agencies that ranged from the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and the South African Revenue Service, to name a few.
“What we have done is that we have now created a paperless system through the establishment of the Biz Portal which is totally automated. One is able to register a company in one day or less in today’s terms. That is the progress we have achieved,” he noted.
Hoosen added that the company registration process could now be performed seamlessly, engaging with all the relevant agencies on the Biz Portal hub instead of having to individually go through seven different steps with different government agencies.
Invest SA had, meanwhile, established One-Stop Shops that were helping to serve investors, in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Stakeholder consultations continue on the expansion of the Invest SA One-Stop Shops in Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape.
“All supply-chain management processes and refurbishment for the above sites have started for completion at the end of this quarter,” confirmed Hoosen.