The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) has launched a mobile application, URSB Connect, which it says will let clients access its services without visiting its offices.

The app gives access to company and business name registration, business name searches, annual returns, trademark and other intellectual property services, and information on insolvency and receivership, according to the Bureau. It also covers the Security Interest in Movable Property Office (SIMPO), the chattels registry.

URSB’s Acting Registrar General, Mustapher Ntale, said the app was intended to make the Bureau’s services easier and faster to reach.

“Our ambition is to make accessing URSB services easier, faster and more convenient for every Ugandan. The URSB Connect App brings us closer to our clients by placing essential services and information in the palm of their hands,” Ntale said at the launch in Kampala on Thursday.

The Bureau said the app was part of a wider move away from paper-based processes, which had required long queues and repeated office visits, towards online services.

URSB already runs the eRegistry, an online platform that replaced the Online Business Registration System (OBRS). The Bureau said the new app would work alongside the eRegistry as an additional channel rather than replace it.

The app is available on the Google Play Store for Android phones and the Apple App Store for iPhones.