Samia’s three years: BRELA improves efficiency and services

The situation has facilitated income collection and goals achievement, says Godfrey Nyaisa, BRELA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

“In three years of President Samia Hassan in office, the agency has empowered its employees to understand its basics, responsibility and vision in terms of serving customers professionally at a higher level. This will motivate stakeholders and citizens, contributing to the national development,” Nyaisa states.

He adds that under Samia’s leadership, revenue collection has gone up by 12 per cent, owing to the improvement of the payment system.

According to CEO, the agency’s priorities set include strong and stable operational system such as Online Registration System (ORS), which enables a businessman to complete his registration and obtain a license online. It reduces the time and costs associated with registering a business.

The system connects various government departments under one roof, whereby one is able to get a taxpayer identification number (Tin) and national identification number (Nin) at the touch of a computer key. Tin and Nin are issued by the Tanzania Revenue Authority and National Identification Authority, respectively.

The platform also means that businesses in other regions will not be necessarily required to travel all the way to Dar es Salaam to register a business.

Nyaisa notes that the ultimate goal was to help the government in its effort to create a friendly environment for businesses to thrive.

He points out that, “Our main goal is to create doing business easy…our responsibility is to make the business environment friendly for business people. With this platform, someone in the United States of America can easily register a business as long one meets all requirements.

Likewise, we need to improve relations with various stakeholders include FCC, TAKUKURU and COSOTA and to conduct research in collaboration with other research institutions with the aim of improving our institution.

In three years of Dr. Samia presidency, the agency has reviewed various laws governing operations including licensing law, companies’ law and various other laws that govern institutions. BRELA has also continued to strengthen effective communication with other stakeholders by strengthening the access to information like NIDA, FCC, VODACOM and commercial banks.

To an English person, it will seem like simplified English, as a skeptical Cambridge friend of mine told me what Occidental is. The European languages are members of the same family. Their separate existence is a myth. For science, music, sport, etc, Europe uses the same vocabulary. The languages only differ in their grammar, their pronunciation and their most common words. Everyone realizes why a new common language would be desirable: one could refuse to pay expensive translators. To achieve this, it would be necessary. To an English person, it will seem like simplified English.

The agency has been supporting the President’s efforts to make sure businesses are operated in a conducive environment.

Isdori Nkindi, Head of Companies Registration Department at BRELA says in this period there has been an increase in business names and companies’ registration for local and foreign businesses.

“This is due President Samia’s efforts to attract investors, along with the awareness of entrepreneurs to register their business names in a move to make their business official,” Nkindi said.

Currently, BRELA has embarked on providing education services on capacity building street-by-street to businessmen on business registration and formalisation of businesses. Six regions have been covered – Mwanza, Mbeya, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Dodoma and Dar es Salaam.

Awareness campaign for traders is also being conducted through mass media, social networks and community- based radio stations.

The agency is also running education programs on the importance of business formalization and revitalization of a dormant company and how to obtain group A license.

During the past three years, company registration increased by 76 per cent to 40,582 compared to 23,166 firms registered between 2018 and 2020. In the same period, BRELA recorded an increase of business names by 85 per cent to 76,860 compared 41,414 recorded between 2018 and 2020.

Loy Mhando, Creative Property Director at BRELA says that her directorate oversees the Law of Trademarks and Patent Registration in order to provide protection for inventions adding that during the past three years, the directorate has witnessed an increase in applications of Trademarks and Services including patents.

This shows that intellectual property, creativity and innovation in general help in addressing various challenges in the society.

Trade mark and Services, according to Mhando are critical tools in identifying products in the market. Without putting a logo or mark on the product it is difficult for consumers to recognize the quality and popularity of the product in question.

The statistics show that in past three years, issuance of patents increased by 33 per cent to 160 patents compared to 120 patents issued from 2018 to 2020. Likewise, Trademarks and Services registration rose by 23 per cent to 10,604 in three years.

Andrew Mkapa, Licensing Director at BRELA explains that in three years, issuance of Group A ‘business licences increased by 26 per cent to 45,078 licenses compared with 35,739 licenses issued from 2018 to 2020.

“This is something to be proud of because it shows that awareness regarding businessmen formalisation is on the increase,” says Mkapa.

In terms of issuance of Industrial Licensing and Industrial registration certificates, the agency recorded an increase by 56 per cent to 631 licenses.