ZimCompany › Guides › Registering from the UK or South Africa
You can register a company in Zimbabwe from the UK or South Africa without travelling. Ownership carries no residency requirement, documents are signed where you live, and the ZIMRA, NSSA and PRAZ registrations are all done online. What still needs someone in Zimbabwe is the resident board of a Private Limited Company, the bank account and the government vendor number.
By The ZimCompany desk in Harare, a Lioncap Ventures service. Published . Last updated , with every source read on the date listed at the end.
The one legal question that travel cannot fix is the board. A Private Limited Company must have at least one director ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe under section 195(2) of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act, and at least one company secretary ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe under section 198(1). If someone you trust lives in Zimbabwe and can take those seats, it is open to you.
If nobody can, a Private Business Corporation needs no one resident, names a qualified accounting officer instead, and accepts a foreign passport number for a member who has no Zimbabwean identity number (section 248(1)(d)). It can only be owned by individuals, so a UK or South African company that wants a Zimbabwean subsidiary uses a Private Limited Company.
What has to be certified, and by whom where you live, depends on what is being registered and who is on the register. We send you that list with your estimate rather than a generic one, and we do not publish a notary, apostille or embassy step we have not confirmed for your filing.
Very little in the filing itself: nothing in the sections and pages this guide relies on turns on which of the two countries you live in. What differs is the clock and the post.
South Africa and Zimbabwe are both UTC+2 and neither changes its clocks, so our Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 Harare hours are South African office hours. Britain is one hour behind Harare in summer and two hours behind in winter. A document that genuinely has to travel is a short courier trip from South Africa and a longer one from Britain.
Either way, quotes are priced and paid in US dollars, by the card link on the quotation or by bank transfer if a card is declined, and someone in Zimbabwe can settle the invoice locally on your behalf.
Our fees in Zimbabwe, one per item:
US$5 per name-search application at cost, included. The registry does not itemise a separate registration fee on this filing US$5 per name-search application, two included, and US$60 to register the entity, all CIPZ fees at cost inside the price Our fees and the government fee are always shown as separate numbers.
Each item takes five working days from the day we have your complete documents, confirmed in writing by our filing partner. Where one item depends on another they run in sequence, so a ZIMRA registration waits for the certificate of incorporation and a tax clearance waits for the ZIMRA registration.
You pay in full when you instruct the job, in one payment rather than in stages. Our fee and the government fee are separate numbers on the quote, and government fees are passed through at cost. Your quotation arrives by email. Reply to it and we confirm your timeline in writing before you pay. If we cannot confirm a timeline in writing, anything you have paid comes back in full. Prices were last verified on 10 September 2026. The full price list is at ZimCompany pricing.
No. Documents are signed where you live and sent digitally, the registration is lodged by a registered filing agent in Harare, and the ZIMRA, NSSA and PRAZ registrations that follow are done online. What needs a person in Zimbabwe is the resident board of a Private Limited Company, the bank account and a government vendor number.
No. Owning a Zimbabwean company carries no citizenship or residency requirement. The residency requirements sit on the board of a Private Limited Company, and a Private Business Corporation accepts a foreign passport number for a member with no Zimbabwean identity number.
It depends on what is being registered and who is on the register, so we confirm the list with your estimate. We do not ask you to certify anything the filing does not need, and we do not publish a certification step we have not confirmed.
Not remotely today. Banks currently ask the people behind the company to appear in person or send certified documents. Where a director is ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe, we prepare the bank pack and they attend the branch; for an owner with nobody in Zimbabwe, the service is coming soon.
Yes, as the shareholder of a Zimbabwean Private Limited Company. It cannot hold a Private Business Corporation, because section 253(1) allows only individuals to be members.
Each item takes five working days from the day we have your complete documents, confirmed in writing by our filing partner. Where one item depends on another they run in sequence, so a ZIMRA registration waits for the certificate of incorporation and a tax clearance waits for the ZIMRA registration. We do not publish a total for a job made of several items, because the dependent ones run one after another.
Nothing in this guide is legal or tax advice. Anything that amounts to legal advice is referred to a legal practitioner. Get an estimate.
ZimCompany registers and runs Zimbabwean companies for people and businesses anywhere in the world: owners living outside Zimbabwe, foreign investors, and companies registered elsewhere that need a Zimbabwean entity. Email support@lioncapventures.com or message +263 77 272 4514 on WhatsApp. We work 9:00 to 17:00 CAT, UTC+2 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
ZimCompany is a Lioncap Ventures service. Lioncap Ventures (Pvt) Ltd, registration 16326A02102024, Harare, Zimbabwe. Start with the questionnaire at https://zimcompany.com/start.