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Businesses Can Now Be Registered Online In Liberia

July 5, 2019

Liberia is shooting to loosen up its business environment for investors and businesses. Unlike what used to be the case in the past where all registration of businesses has to be done online, the Liberia Business Registry (LBR) has launched a website which has an online application for effective and efficient service delivery to the business community. The service became effective Wednesday, July 3.

What The Liberian Online Business Registration Looks Like

With the new online platform, the time limit for establishing a business in the country would be significantly reduced.

“People from Pleebo, Nimba, Lofa and all far-to-reach areas will no longer have to commute to Monrovia, and bear the cost of transportation and accommodation just to get registered or obtain Articles of Incorporation, said Mr. Dee, Registrar General of the Liberia Business Registry.

The website also will provide different kinds of corporate registration information and will help taxpayers directly apply for certificates and Articles of Incorporation with a user account, according to Registrar General Samson Dee.
The reform is coming after Liberia’s President George Weah established the “Business Climate Working Group” which informed the establishment of the Website and online Application.

The registry is supported by a worldwide network of Liberian representatives and Special Agents

The Challenges Of Setting Up Business In Liberia Is Noted In This Statement From Mr. Dee

“There have been series of challenges, in fact the last rating that came up from the World Bank, said it was taking Liberia 18 days to register a business in the Country and I think we all know that this is highly unfriendly when it comes to the business sector. So, on that basis President George M. Weah, set up a Business Climate Working Group, of which we are member and we were tasked with the singular responsibility to turn the picture around to improve the business climate and ensure that we attract investors from every part of the world,” he said.

“We heard the Registrar General say there are foreign entrepreneurs who may come to Liberia and may like to have information of doing business in the Country, and this development will undoubtedly help in the process.” Acting Commerce and Industry Minister Mr. Wilfred N. Bangura observed.

Under Liberian corporate law, all businesses are required to register or apply for a Business Registration Certificate to authorize doing business or providing services in Liberia.

The Liberia Business Registry (LBR) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) handles the applications and business registration processes. The fee structure for registration varies depending on whether a business is local, foreign, a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a corporation. The standard steps to follow in establishing a local business office are noted below:

Reserve a unique company name with LBR: an applicant can do a name search online or at the LBR helpdesk; business names can be reserved for up to 120 days.
Register the company using the registration application form (RF-001), and submit the completed application with the company’s articles of incorporation, proof of identification, empowered person’s or registered agent’s form, incorporator’s form, shares and shareholders’ form, and information for tax authority form.
LBR will review the application package and request a Tax Identification Number (TIN) and bank payment slip (BPS) on behalf of the business in question; all businesses operating in Liberia must have a TIN, which is obtained free of charge from Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
Once a TIN has been obtained, pay associated business registration fees at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL)’s window at LBR or use the mobile money payment system; mobile money services are provided by the two leading mobile network operators, Lonestar MTN and Orange Liberia.
Present the proof of payment to the LBR registrar where the process is completed.

The entire process takes one to four weeks. Registration of business is valid for 12 calendar months from the date of registration. Conducting commercial activities in Liberia without being registered will result in penalties.

The LBR publishes a fee schedule for new enterprise registrations applicable to different types of legal entities.

All that will now have to be done online with this new move.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

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Why Many Business Schools Are Closing Their Campuses And Moving Online

June 8, 2019

Considering migrating across countries to pursue your MBA program. It is time to think again. The United States’ University of Illinois’ Gies College of Business has just joined the league of business schools to close off their full-time or part-time, on-campus MBA programs. The school will now focus more intensely on its online MBA option, the $22,000 iMBA. The online iMBA has seen huge growth since being launched in 2015.

The University of Illinois’ Gies College is merely joining the bandwagon. In 2018, the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business announced that it would end its full-time MBA program. Joining this league are the US’ Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management, Wake Forest University, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Virginia Tech, and Simmons College (the country’s only all-female business school) which have all shuttered their traditional two-year programs.

In the UK, Henley Business School has canceled its full-time MBA for the 2019–20 academic year, pending a “review of the MBA market”. Recent data across the US shows the number of full-time MBA programs offered across the country slid 9% between 2014 and 2018, while online and flexible programs increased sharply. Although schools such as Harvard does not yet offer any degree programs like many other business schools (see The Best Online MBA Programs Of 2019), Harvard’s digital courses such as Business Analytics and Entrepreneurship Essentials to Disruptive Strategy and Economics for Managers have seen enrolment increase to more than 70% since the school re-branded its online program from HBX to Harvard Business School Online. So, why are on-campus business schools shuttering down rapidly? We discuss below.

The University of Illinois’ Gies College of Business, Like Other Business Schools, Admits It is Losing Money On Its On-Campus Programs

The schools believe there is no way on-campus business schools are remaining profitable. A look at the numbers at the University of Illinois’ full-time MBA, ranked in the top 50 by U.S. News will reveal a growing disinterest in on-campus MBA programs. For instance, Applications to Gies’ full-time program fell to 290 this year from 386 in 2016. This is even as the school enrolled fewer than 50 full-time students in each of the past three years. Even when apps were nearly 100 higher in 2016, Gies was only able to enroll in a class of 47 students. Instead, applications to Gies’ iMBA are reaching a 3,200 hit this year, up from 1,099 in 2016, although the program is not yet among the best online MBAs in the U.S.

Generally, applications to MBA programs have declined. Data from AACSB’s 2016–17 and 2017–18 Business School Questionnaires shows that 59 percent of U.S. business schools reported a decline in MBA applications. A longer-term view shows a culmination of years of slow but steady decline: when comparing survey responses in 2013–14 to 2017–18, 53 percent of U.S. schools reported a decline in applications to MBA programs.

Thunderbird, which first switched from a two- to a one-year MBA program before eventually abandoning its MBA in 2014, saw enrolment drop from 1,500 students in 1990 to 140 in 2012.

Alternatively, prospective business school intakes are channeling more of their resources towards pursuing their undergraduate business programs, especially master’s in business and online MBA programs. Almost 32,000 students are studying for an online MBA at the 25 largest programs in the U.S. At the same time Gies experienced declining interest in its full- and part-time MBA programs, interest in its online MBA has exploded.

Online MBAs Are Becoming Significantly Acceptable To Recruiters

The stress of moving on and off campuses is gradually being replaced by the convenience of learning from home. Recruiters themselves are buying into the story and turning their eyes away from intensely scrutinizing the worth of online MBA programs.

According to a recent report, recruiters say most employers accept job candidates’ online MBAs from respected schools. Many graduates of online MBA programs say they get positive outcomes immediately after getting their degrees. For instance, online graduates of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business are reporting average salary increases of 29% over their pre-MBA pay. At the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, 76% percent of online students have received promotions or started new jobs while in the program. Students there also average 29% salary increases over their pre-MBA pay levels by graduation.

This is perhaps why international students are saving their travel fares and sticking to online MBA programs. As an example, the number of international students who want to study in the U.S. is down: 58% in 2016 vs. 61% in 2009, according to GMAC. For students in Western Europe, the top preferred location for business school is now the U.K., rather than the U.S., which was the most preferred option in 2009.

In other countries, the cost of hiring MBA graduates is also becoming unbearable. The King’s College, London now concentrates on master’s as against MBA programs. Henley’s suspension of its MBA occurred after U.K. employers expressed a preference for hiring talent at a younger, pre-MBA stage, according to the schools’ leadership. Reason: the cost of an MBA program is not only a concern for applicants. Hiring from MBA programs is expensive for employers, forced to pay starting salaries high enough to attract candidates looking to make a return on their investment and pay back their MBA loans. This explains why some employers favor early-stage hires from pre-experience master’s programs.

Prospective MBA Candidates Are Finding Options in Non-MBA graduate business degrees

According to the Wall Street Journal, many schools now offer part-time and specialized programs in accounting and finance, which students are increasingly choosing over a traditional MBA. These programs are potentially cannibalistic to MBA program per se.

Globally, candidates are considering other MBA-related disciplines. The percentage of candidates preferring only business master’s degrees has increased from 15% in 2009 to 23% in 2016, according to a 2017 report by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), the organization that administers the GMAT, the business school entrance exam. Candidates considering only MBA programs decreased from 52% to 49% over the same period.

Again, the demand for master’s in data analytics has experienced a huge boom. It is now the second-most considered business master’s program after the master’s in finance, according to GMAC.