Companies Office home under renovation, moving to Pan Jam building
Published:Thursday | September 25, 2025 | 11:29 AM
The Companies Office of Jamaica, COJ, is expanding at its current location at Grenada Way in New Kingston to better serve clients but is making plans to relocate within two years, Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Aubyn Hill has said.
Its new home will still be in New Kingston but on the Pan Jamaica building at Knutsford Boulevard, where the agency is to be kitted out with bigger space, Hill said.
He disclosed that the Cannabis Licensing Authority of Jamaica, also an agency of his ministry, was relocating from a space of about 6,000 square feet in the Pan Jamaican building. This, he said, would facilitate the COJ as its new tenant, but Permanent Secretary Sancia Bennett Templer advised that the process would take about 18 months to two years.
“It has not been easy nor as smooth as we would like,” the minister said of the renovations under way, during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“The Grenada Way location is a disaster,” he declared. “I am here to make it clear that we're not going to dodge the bullet. It's not what we want. People sometimes have to line up on the street … unacceptable!” Hill said.
Hill was reappointed to the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce - or what he has attempted to brand as the Business Ministry – following the general election on September 3.
The minister noted that the situation at the COJ was inherited by current CEO Shellie Leon. The agency’s CEO also operates as the registrar of companies. Hill blamed the slow improvement of the COJ facilities on government’s procurement rules, which he said were in need of an overhaul.
In a response to a query from the Financial Gleaner, the ministry confirmed that some staff had already moved to the Pan Jam building. The ministry said the COJ currently occupied two floors and would soon be adding a third. The cost of the rental was not immediately ascertained.
Meanwhile, Hill said the digitisation of the COJ is ongoing.
“Between April and August of this year, we had 35,244 customers. Last year during the same period of time, we had 36,177 customers. In other words, the number of customers we served dropped by almost seven per cent,” he said.
“But transactions between April and August this year have risen to 40,758, which is a 21 per cent increase over the 33,730 (during the same period) last year. So it means digitisation is happening, people are going online,” he added.
The minister said, although the COJ was renting more office space, the long-term plan was to reduce the number of in-person customers.
“The future of the COJ is digital. Considerable work has been done online, and more is on the way. Digitisation of 80 per cent of forms and services will be online by December 2025,” he said.
Other improvements expected at the COJ include the introduction of automatic approval of business name registrations, change of directors and change of business office, and the development of a mobile app. These technological improvements, he said, will reduce in-branch crowding, shorten turnaround time on transactions, and make it easier for businesses to comply.