BRELA REGISTERS 495 BUSINESS NAMES, FIRMS

BUSINESS Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA) has registered 495 business names and companies since it embarked on its upcountry sensitisation campaign three months ago.

BRELA’s acting Deputy Registrar of Intellectual Property, Loy Mhando, said here yesterday that 423 business names and 72 companies have been registered.

She told a five-day seminar for traders in Rukwa Region that there was positive and encouraging response in the registration of business names and companies during seminars.

“Since we started this campaign in the regions we have witnessed people’s mindset towards the way they conduct their businesses,” she said, adding that the attendance has also been very high.

The Acting Deputy Registrar said businesspeople have started to sense the logic behind formalising their businesses to have legal status and recognition.

“We see many traders coming in big numbers to attend our seminars and ask questions while others register their business after the seminar,” she explained.

She named some of the regions where BRELA officials have already conducted sensitisation seminars as Mwanza, Geita, Simiyu, Mara, Mbeya, Songwe and Rukwa. 

“This good attendance is a testimony that people follow our programmes in media outlets,” she said, stressing that the upcountry sensitisation campaigns are sustainable.

Earlier, Rukwa Regional Administrative Secretary Tixon Nzandu described BRELA’s presence in his region as a catalyst towards motivating traders to learn and register their businesses.

“We are proud of your endeavours of going directly to traders and educate them on the significance of making their businesses formal,” he said, calling for traders to exploit the agency’s services. He said the sensitisation seminars were always of paramount importance since they help to change people’s mindset.

Speaking during the seminar, a businessman, Christopher Mtawa, called on his colleagues to utilise BRELA’s services during the five-day presence in the region.

“We congratulate you (BRELA) for your bold decisions to come for us and educate the importance of registering business names,” he said, pledging that traders in the region were ready to change their mindset.