Starting a Business

Business Startup Procedures

Liberia Business Registry

A One-Stop Shop for Business Registration
An entity will have to be registered with the Liberia Business Registry in order to commence business activities in Liberia. The process of registration of business has now been reduced to the following:

An applicant submits an application to register the business, provides the required documents, and pays the required fee. All information relating to fees can be found at the Registry website: www.lbr.gov.lr;

An applicant who receives approval from the Liberia Business Registry will be issued a Business Registration Certificate.

Register at the Liberia Business Registry: (Agency: Liberia Business Registry)

The entrepreneur submits the company registration application to the Liberia Business Registry (LBR) office. The application must include the following documents:
Consolidated application for a limited liability company contains:

  1. Registration Form (RF – 001)
  2. Articles of incorporation
  3. Copy of ID documents as attachments to forms A or B

There are 4 categories of registered businesses:

  1. Corporation (including limited liability companies);
  2. Partnership;
  3. Sole proprietorship;
  4. Petty trade

Additional parts:

  1. Empowered person form (A) or Registered agent form (B) in case of a company representative
  2. Incorporator(s) form (E)
  3. Shares and shareholder(s) form (F)
  4. Information for TAX authority form (Q)

LBR officers review the application and request the Tax Identification Number (TIN) and BPS from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on behalf of the entrepreneur.

Reserve a unique company name: (Agency: Liberia Business Registry)

The applicant can search the name online or at the Liberian Business Registry helpdesk. The reservation of the name lasts for 120 days at the cost of about USD $15.00.

Pay fees and obtain proof of payment: Agency: Liberia Business Registry (Central Bank window)

The entrepreneur proceeds to the bank window in order to pay the associated registration fees. Upon payment of the fee, the Bank officer issues a flag receipt of the Government of Liberia as proof of payment. This receipt has to be returned to the initial officer who accepted the application.