Press Releases

October 30, 2007. Lusaka

U.S. Government-supported PACRO Office in Ndola to Help Copperbelt Businesses

Ndola – The opening of a new Patents and Companies Registration Office (PACRO) Customer Service Center today in Ndola comes as great news for business owners in the Northern, Luapula, North-Western and Copperbelt provinces, who will no longer need to travel all the way to Lusaka to register their businesses.

PACRO Ndola will be a boon for economic growth in Zambia, helping to make a business climate friendlier both to Zambian entrepreneurs and foreign investors. At the opening, Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Mr. Felix Mutati, and Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy, Mr. Michael Koplovsky, celebrated PACRO’s expansion and the Zambian Government’s commitment to make its services friendlier, more accessible and free of corruption.

Mr. Koplovsky said the new center demonstrated PACRO’s vision for a better business atmosphere in Zambia, and reiterated the U.S. committment to support the Zambian Government in its effort to provide transparent and streamlined processes, adding that “an atmosphere in which business transactions are done in the open and with ease is an inviting one.”

Mr. Mutati used the event to introduce a series of brochures that showcase PACRO’s services.  These will be available PACRO offices, national banks and investment centers, and in key foreign missions to help encourage foreign investment, promote transparency, and discourage corruption.  As in Lusaka, the Ndola branch uses an automated system that makes the registration process of businesses easy, fast, and transparent.

The opening of the Ndola office is part of PACRO’s national expansion program, which aims to ease business registration and support private sector growth.  PACRO plans to open similar branch offices in Livingstone and Chipata in the coming months.

The PACRO Center in Ndola was refurbished with assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation Zambia Threshold Project at a cost of $60,000. 

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