Business name registrations hit all-time high in 2022 – DTI

MANILA, Philippines — Total businesses registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) increased by 7.4 percent this year, surpassing record levels in 2020.

According to the DTI, 932,097 business names (BNs) were registered this year, higher than the 867,647 in 2021. The figure is higher than the record BN registrations in 2020 at 916,164.

“The rising number of sole proprietors registering their business names is indeed a positive sign that the Filipino entrepreneurial spirit is alive and recovering from the pandemic. We are pleased that more sole proprietors have undertaken the necessary first step of registering their businesses, starting with their business names,” Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said.

Of the total, new BNs made up 88.8 percent or 827,491.

In contrast, the remaining share was for renewal of BN registrations at 104,606.

“The business activity of most of the BN registrations, based on the Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC), is into retail selling in sari-sari stores with 180,406 processed applications,” the DTI said.

This is followed by other restaurants and mobile food services activities and real estate buying, selling, renting, leasing, and operating of self-owned/leased apartment buildings, non-residential and dwellings with 75,391 and 32,764 registrations respectively.

“DTI wants to make business registration less complicated and seamless,” Pascual said.

“As we constantly integrate technology in the improvement of our services, the department is working closely with the DICT to fully implement an end-to end registration, in support of e-governance measures to achieve a more efficient public service delivery and better experience for our citizens,” he said.

The DTI pointed out that since the development and launch of the Business Name Registration System (BNRS) Next Gen in 2019, BN applications registered and processed online went up from 35 percent to 75 percent based on the payment collections received.

The BNRS Next Gen is a web-based portal that allows end-to-end registration of business names for sole proprietors.

With the system, BN applicants no longer need to visit DTI Offices and Negosyo Centers to register their business names, they can simply register using their computers or mobile phones with internet connections within eight minutes, anytime, anywhere.

Similarly, applicants may avail of various digital payment options such as Gcash, Maya, Credit Cards and LandBank LinkBiz portal for fund transfers.