ZimCompany › Investing in Zimbabwe
A foreign investor, or a company registered outside Zimbabwe, can own a Zimbabwean company outright. Ownership carries no residency or citizenship requirement. What foreign ownership adds is the company secretary a Private Limited Company must hold under section 198, which you appoint yourself because we do not provide one yet, a registered office in Zimbabwe, registration with the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency where foreign shareholding reaches 51%, exchange control approval when shares in an existing company are acquired, and the reserved sectors in Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025, which keeps thirteen sectors for Zimbabweans and opens four more to a foreign owner only above a threshold and with a permit.
Last verified 10 September 2026. 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.
Three kinds of reader end up here. An individual who is not a Zimbabwean citizen and wants to put money into a Zimbabwean business. A company registered somewhere else, opening a Zimbabwean subsidiary to contract, invoice, employ or bid locally. And a mixed group, where some owners are Zimbabwean citizens and some are not.
All three get a price from the questionnaire rather than a sales call. One case does not, and it is named on this page rather than buried: buying into a company that already exists, where exchange control approval can apply to the acquisition of the shares.
Nothing on this page is legal advice. It is the list of requirements we work to, with the source for each one, so you can take it to your own adviser and check it.
A Private Limited Company is the route for a company registered outside Zimbabwe. Section 253(1) of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act [Chapter 24:31] provides that only individual natural persons acting in their own right may be members of a Private Business Corporation, and that no partnership, association or body corporate may be a member, whether directly or through a nominee. A corporate parent therefore holds shares in a Private Limited Company; it cannot hold a PBC at all.
An individual who is not a Zimbabwean citizen can use either. No section of the Act imposes a residency or citizenship requirement on a PBC member, and section 248(1)(d) accepts the number of any other official identity document where a member has no Zimbabwean national identity number, which a foreign passport satisfies. A Private Limited Company brings the board duties with it: section 195(2) requires at least one director ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe and section 198(1) requires a company secretary ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe.
That reading of the Act is ours and is not legal advice. Pages elsewhere on the open web assert that a PBC needs a Zimbabwean member, without citing a section. We cite ours so you can check it.
Registration with the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency is reported to apply to a Zimbabwean company with 51% or more foreign shareholding. ZIDA also runs a One Stop Investment Services Centre that facilitates company and tax registration, permits and sector licences, which is why it appears in your estimate as a line rather than as an afterthought.
The ZIDA fees themselves: Reported by Harare consultancies as a US$500 application fee and a US$4,500 licence fee, payable to ZIDA at cost; we confirm the current figures with ZIDA before you pay.
Our own work on a ZIDA application is quoted differently. Quoted after the foreign investor consultation. The foreign investor consultation is US$150, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered. ZIDA fees are separate and are paid to ZIDA at cost. There is no published figure for it on this site and there will not be one until the line has been through the same pricing gate as everything else. Quoting you a number we have not costed would be worse than telling you we have not costed it.
What a licensed investor may qualify for in the way of tax incentives is deliberately absent from this page. The exact wording has to come from the Act or from ZIDA before we repeat it, and a tax incentive you plan around and then do not get is an expensive thing to have read on a website.
Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (Foreign Participation in Reserved Sectors) Regulations, 2025, was published in the Government Gazette Extraordinary of 11 December 2025. The regulations apply to every foreign national who wishes to participate in a reserved sector. Participating means taking a majority or a minority stake in a reserved-sector business, going into partnership with one or taking one over, or forming a new business that operates exclusively or predominantly in the sector, so a foreign stake of any size counts, including a share in a company Zimbabwean citizens also own. A Zimbabwean company whose shareholder is a company registered outside Zimbabwe is covered in the same way. The foreign company's stake counts under section 2 whether it is a majority or a minority, and section 5 lets the authorities require a sworn declaration of the beneficial owners, so they look through the shareholder to the people behind it.
Its Schedule lists seventeen sectors. Thirteen sectors are exclusively for Zimbabweans: passenger buses, taxis and car hire services; barber shops, hairdressing and beauty salons; employment agencies; estate agencies; valet services; bakeries; tobacco grading and packaging; advertising agencies; provision of local arts and craft, marketing and distribution; artisanal mining; borehole drilling; clearing and customs; and pharmaceutical retailing. Three of them carry an exception for international brands, a term the regulations do not define: passenger buses, taxis and car hire services; estate agencies; and clearing and customs.
The other four are open to a foreign national only at the Schedule's minimums of full-time paid employees and investment: retail and wholesale trade (200 employees and US$20,000,000); grain milling (50 employees and US$25,000,000); haulage and logistics (100 employees and US$10,000,000); and shipping and forwarding (20 employees and US$1,000,000).
A foreign national who qualifies holds the stake through an individual or entity registered in Zimbabwe, meets the Schedule's thresholds, is registered with ZIMRA, keeps a bank account and presents a sound business plan, and applies to the Minister for a permit. The Minister considers the application within 60 days. Operating in a reserved sector without a permit, or helping someone else to, is an offence carrying a fine up to level eight, imprisonment of three to five years, or both.
The 75% divestment is for foreign businesses already operating in a reserved sector when the regulations were gazetted: they had 30 days to submit a regularisation plan, and they divest at least 75% of their equity to Zimbabwean citizens within three years, in annual tranches of at least 25%. It is not a route in for a new business. When a Zimbabwean-owned business in a reserved sector becomes wholly or partly foreign-owned, the change is notified within seven days and a permit applied for.
Verified 14 September 2026 (Government Gazette, S.I. 215 of 2025). Source: Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (Foreign Participation in Reserved Sectors) Regulations, 2025, sections 2 to 7 and the Schedule, Government Gazette Extraordinary of 11 December 2025, text published by Veritas.
A questionnaire answer is broader than any gazetted activity, so where your sector contains one the questionnaire asks whether the company will mainly do it, rather than telling you a whole industry is closed. Transport is the clearest example: passenger buses, taxis and car hire services are exclusively for Zimbabweans, haulage and logistics is open to a foreign owner only above its threshold and with a permit, and other transport work is not named.
If you intend to sell to the Zimbabwean government, the difference between owning a Zimbabwean company and bidding as a foreign supplier has a published annual price. A locally registered small or medium enterprise pays around US$50 to US$75 per category per year to stay on the supplier register. A foreign bidder pays US$850 a year.
What the procurement authority is looking at is where the company is registered, not whose passport is behind it. A Zimbabwean company owned by a foreign parent bids on the local fee. The gap repeats every year you bid.
Those fee figures come from a secondary analysis of the 2026 fee structure. The procurement authority publishes no fee page of its own, so we confirm the fee for your categories with PRAZ before you pay it.
ZimCompany is a coordination desk, not a law firm and not a registry. Anything that amounts to legal advice is referred to a legal practitioner, and we say that before you ask rather than after.
Where you need a legal practitioner we say so and refer you, rather than answering and hoping. That is not caution for its own sake: advising on a share structure or an exchange control position is reserved work under the Legal Practitioners Act [Chapter 27:07], and a coordination desk that quietly does it is not a desk you should trust with the rest of your file either.
Twelve questions, about three minutes, and the second one asks who will own the company. Answer that any of the three foreign ways and you get a price, not a callback.
The estimate is built the same way as anybody else: the filing bundle the rest of your answers point at, our fee and the government fees as separate numbers. What foreign ownership adds is shown as its own named lines rather than folded into a bundle price, so you can see exactly what the law is charging you for.
Two outcomes on this route are a consultation instead of a price: a foreign owner buying into a company that already exists, where exchange control approval can apply to acquiring the shares, and a company with a foreign owner that will mainly work in a reserved sector. A price we might have to withdraw is worse than no price. The foreign investor consultation is US$150, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered.
Outside the reserved sectors, yes: ownership carries no citizenship requirement. Inside them, Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025 decides, and a smaller stake does not help, because a minority stake counts as much as a whole one. Thirteen of its seventeen sectors are exclusively for Zimbabweans, and the other four need the Schedule's minimum employees and investment and a permit from the Minister. Verified 14 September 2026 (Government Gazette, S.I. 215 of 2025).
Not in thirteen of the seventeen, which the Schedule to Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025 keeps exclusively for Zimbabweans; three of those make an exception for international brands, a term the regulations do not define. In the other four, only with the Schedule's minimums and a permit from the Minister: retail and wholesale trade needs at least 200 full-time paid employees and a minimum investment of US$20,000,000; grain milling needs at least 50 full-time paid employees and a minimum investment of US$25,000,000; haulage and logistics needs at least 100 full-time paid employees and a minimum investment of US$10,000,000; and shipping and forwarding needs at least 20 full-time paid employees and a minimum investment of US$1,000,000. A foreign stake of any size counts, including a minority share in a company Zimbabwean citizens also own. A Zimbabwean company whose shareholder is a company registered outside Zimbabwe is covered in the same way. The foreign company's stake counts under section 2 whether it is a majority or a minority, and section 5 lets the authorities require a sworn declaration of the beneficial owners, so they look through the shareholder to the people behind it. Operating in a reserved sector without a permit, or helping someone else to, is an offence carrying a fine up to level eight, imprisonment of three to five years, or both. Our questionnaire asks about it, and a company with a foreign owner that will mainly work in a reserved sector starts with the foreign investor consultation. The foreign investor consultation is US$150, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered. Verified 14 September 2026 (Government Gazette, S.I. 215 of 2025).
A Private Limited Company must have one under section 198, and it is a statutory appointment rather than an optional extra. We do not provide one. That service is coming soon, so for now you appoint your own, and every estimate says so as a note with no price on it. A Private Limited Company separately needs at least one director ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe under section 195(2). A Private Business Corporation carries neither appointment, and instead names a qualified accounting officer on its incorporation statement under sections 248 and 274, whom you also appoint yourself.
Registration with the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency is reported to apply where there is 51% or more foreign shareholding. Reported by Harare consultancies as a US$500 application fee and a US$4,500 licence fee, payable to ZIDA at cost; we confirm the current figures with ZIDA before you pay. Our own assistance with the application carries no published number: it is quoted after the foreign investor consultation. The foreign investor consultation is US$150, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered.
Exchange control approval can apply where a person who is not a Zimbabwean citizen acquires shares in a company already registered in Zimbabwe. That is a different transaction from registering a new company, the opinion on it belongs to a legal practitioner, and it starts with a foreign investor consultation rather than a quotation. The foreign investor consultation is US$150, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered.
Yes, of a Private Limited Company. It cannot hold a Private Business Corporation: section 253(1) of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act allows only individual natural persons acting in their own right to be members and excludes a body corporate, directly or through a nominee.
No. Work and residence permits are handled through ZIDA and the immigration authorities and are a separate process. We say so before you plan around it.
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Share structures, shareholder agreements, joint venture terms, disputes and the exchange control opinion are reserved to legal practitioners under the Legal Practitioners Act [Chapter 27:07]. We refer you to one. What we carry is the filings, the statutory appointments and the calendar.
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.
Register a company in Zimbabwe: The two vehicles, the steps from name search to ZIMRA, the documents the registry needs, and what each step costs, with the government fee as its own number.