Swiftlaw, an online legal tech platform in Ghana that allows its clients to register a company in a week, is proud to announce that it has been shortlisted for the SME Empowerment Challenge 2016 an initiative run by HiiL Justice Accelerator together with the Ford Foundation to promote justice solutions that empower SME’s across Africa.

Swiftlaw is an online legal tech platform that allows persons in Ghana to register a company in a week is one of 69 innovations shortlisted from over 400 applications for HiiL Justice Accelerator’s SME Empowerment Challenge 2016.

Swiftlaw allows its clients to side-step the bureaucracy, avoid the unnecessary delays and exorbitant legal fees involved in registering a company in Ghana by simply filing out a form online.

The Swiftlaw process has been created and optimized by a dedicated team of lawyers, laymen and software engineers. The result is a simpler, cheaper and hassle-free way to do business in Ghana.

Swiftlaw is the result of an unlikely pairing of a Software Engineer Kwei Quaye-Foli (29), and a Commercial Lawyer, Samuel Baddoo (27).

The SME Empowerment Challenge was launched by HiiL Justice Accelerator (a not-for-profit foundation based in The Hague) in 2015 to recognize and promote innovative justice solutions through clever use of technology that empowers SME’s across Africa.

The HiiL Justice Accelerator partnered with the Ford Foundation (a private foundation headquartered in New York with the mission of advancing human welfare) to launch the 2016 challenge with the view of increasing the impact in addressing challenges to SME’s in Africa.

The SME Empowerment Challenge 2016 seeks persons with ideas and innovations that provide equality of opportunities for entrepreneurs to start a business, cost- effective and customized legal services for businesses (i.e. registration, legal advice, compliance, contracts, IP protection).

The Co-founders of Swiftlaw are quite hopeful of winning the competition although it is still early days yet because of the following reasons:

1.The Swiftlaw application is simple, easy to understand and completed in minutes and there is a Swiftlaw helpline to assist anyone who gets stuck in the process.

2.It is an affordable service that offers further discounted rates to start-ups, it allows for more entrepreneurs and start-ups who typically have no access to credit the benefit of starting their business the right way without having to pay exorbitant legal fees that a typical law firm in Ghana will charge.

3. It is fast (we boast of being able to register a company within a week!) tremendously cutting down the time it takes for an entrepreneur to get their business started and eliminates the uncertainty of dealing with dubious middlemen who promise “ facilitate “ the incorporation process and then later disappear with your money.

Swiftlaw (www.swiftlaw.co) also provides such ancillary services such as : Registration with the Regulatory authorities (Ghana Revenue Authority & Ghana Investment Promotion Centre), Bank Account Openings and Company Searches.

“In the 2 months since www.swiftlaw.co went live the response has been impressive, we have partnered with Workshed Africa (a co-working space based in Accra) and the Innohub Accelerator (Accra-based accelerator) to help entrepreneurs who need to register their business. We also have a working relationship with the Ghana-UK Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry France-Ghana and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce Ghana” says Samuel Baddoo.

Having been shortlisted for the SME Empowerment Challenge, Swiftlaw now enters the online voting campaign stage of the competition. If Swiftlaw makes it through to the online voting stage it will progress to the local Boostcamp stage to be hosted in Nigeria.

Finalists from the local Boostcamp will have the opportunity to pitch on the Innovating Justice Forum in The Hague on 1-2 December, 2016.