By HELLEN ZULU? –

THE Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) is targeting to deregister 22,000 defunct companies for non-compliance with the requirements of filing annual returns.
PACRA registrar and chief executive officer Anthony Bwembya said the deregistration decision followed the companies’ failure respond to the notices.
He was speaking to journalists after officiating at the National Roving Seminar on Making Better use of Intellectual Property for Business Competitiveness and Development in Africa, organised by the Government in collaboration with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO).
He said the agency would be issuing the notice of deregistration to the 22, 000 defunct companies within a month saying that failure for the companies to respond to the notice within 30 days would mean deregistration.
“My team will be issuing the notice of intention to deregister defunct companies within one month to find out whether or not they still want to remain in our data base, so if they do not respond to the notices within 30 days then it means that we will remove them from the register.
“These are companies that have not been complying with the requirement of filling annual returns and have not responded to the notices,” Mr Bwembya said.
He said there was a cost associated to the maintenance of the business records as the cost of finding space on the data base is costly.
Meanwhile, the agency has registered about 4, 000 business entities in the first quarter of 2015 across the country.
The registered sectors include small and medium enterprises in the construction, transport, mining, farming and engineering sectors.??The number of registered businesses is expected to increase by December, this year.
Speaking earlier, Mr Bwembya said the protection of traditional knowledge would soon be made law in Zambia to ensure that people benefit from their creation.
He said the focus of the seminar was on the protection of traditional knowledge, saying that this would soon become law in the country.
Mr Bwembya said this would enable Zambia to protect traditional knowledge in terms of traditional medicine, traditional practices, cultural dances and expression of folk laws.
ARIPO director general Fernando dos Santos urged Zambia to join the Banjul Protocol for Protection of Marks as this would open an opportunity for users worldwide to seek protection of their trademarks in Zambia.
He said the Banjul Protocol would also be an opportunity for Zambian innovators and entrepreneurs to protect their brands in the ARIPO Member states using the regional system.