ZimCompany › Private Business Corporation
A Private Business Corporation is a Zimbabwean business entity owned by members rather than shareholders, formed under section 247 of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act [Chapter 24:31] by one to twenty members. Unlike a Private Limited Company, whose board carries the residency duties in sections 195(2) and 198(1), no section of the Act imposes a residency requirement on a PBC member, which makes it the straightforward choice for one owner living outside Zimbabwe. It is not an entity that needs nobody: section 248(1)(g) requires the name and postal address of an accounting officer on its incorporation statement, and section 274(1) says who is qualified to be one.
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.
The Private Business Corporation, usually shortened to PBC, exists for small owner-run businesses in Zimbabwe. Section 247 of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act forms it from one or more persons, section 252(1) caps it at twenty members, and its constitution is short. For someone outside Zimbabwe the important point is structural rather than cosmetic: the residency duties in the Act, a director ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe under section 195(2) and a secretary ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe under section 198(1), sit in the Part that governs companies and attach to a "company". Nothing in sections 247 to 275, which govern the PBC, imposes either on a member.
One limit matters more than the residency point for a corporate buyer: section 253(1) provides that only individual natural persons acting in their own right may be members, and that no partnership, association or body corporate may be a member, whether directly or through a nominee. A company registered outside Zimbabwe therefore cannot hold a PBC, and the route for a foreign parent is a Private Limited Company.
We cite the sections because pages elsewhere assert the opposite without citing any, and because this is the rule that decides which vehicle you end up with. It is our reading of the Act, not legal advice.
If you are starting alone, there is nobody ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe you want to put on a board, and you are not about to raise investment, the PBC is usually the right answer and the cheaper one. It registers, trades, employs, pays tax, and can be converted later. The one appointment it does carry is the accounting officer, and the section below sets out what the Act asks of them.
| Private Business Corporation | Private Limited Company | |
|---|---|---|
| Owners are called | Members holding a percentage interest | Shareholders holding shares |
| Zimbabwe resident director required | No section imposes one | Yes. Section 195(2): at least one director shall be ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe |
| Resident company secretary required | No section imposes one | Yes. Section 198(1): every company shall have at least one secretary ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe |
| Who may be an owner | Section 253(1): only individual natural persons acting in their own right. No body corporate, directly or through a nominee | A person or another company may hold shares |
| Accounting officer required | Yes. Section 248(1)(g): the incorporation statement states the name and postal address of an accounting officer, and section 248(3)(b) has it signed by someone qualified to become one. Section 274(1) says who qualifies | No such appointment. Section 198(1) requires a company secretary ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe instead |
| How many owners | Section 252(1): one to twenty members | Section 195(1): more than one and fewer than ten shareholders means two or more directors, ten or more shareholders means three or more |
| Typical use | Owner-run trading business | Investment, partners, tenders, corporate customers, a foreign parent |
| Converts later | Yes | Not applicable |
A Private Business Corporation carries no residency duty on its members, and pages including this one used to leave it there. That is half the picture. Section 248(1)(g) of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act provides that the incorporation statement "shall state the name and postal address of an accounting officer", and section 248(3)(b) provides that the statement "shall be signed by a person who is qualified to become the accounting officer" of the corporation. Without that name, and that signature, there is no statement the registry can register.
Section 274(1) says who is qualified: a member, entitled to practise as such, of a profession approved by the Minister, or a person licensed by the Minister to act as an accounting officer. Section 274(2) allows a member of the corporation itself to act where they are qualified, provided the corporation has at least one other member, so a two-member PBC in which one member is a practising Zimbabwean accountant can appoint from the inside.
We do not provide an accounting officer, and we do not put a price on one anywhere on this site. You name your own, and we tell you exactly what the registry needs from them. Unlike the resident director question on a Private Limited Company, this is a question of qualification rather than of where anybody lives, so an accountant you already deal with in Zimbabwe is usually the answer.
One practical consequence is worth knowing before you go looking for an address. The proviso to section 31(1) allows the registered office of a private business corporation to be the physical address of its accounting officer, so an accounting officer who agrees to that solves the registered office question at the same time. As with the residency reading above, this is our reading of the Act, not legal advice.
A PBC has the same statutory duties as any other registered business. Register with ZIMRA when the company starts trading; as an employer, within 14 days of the first hire. That registration issues your TIN, and a Business Partner Number where one applies. Register with the National Social Security Authority within 30 days of taking on your first employee. Take a tax clearance certificate before you invoice a corporate or government customer, because without one 30% is withheld from what they pay you on contracts of US$1,000 or more.
Our fee for private business corporation registration in Zimbabwe: US$160. US$5 per name-search application at cost, included. The registry does not itemise a separate registration fee on this filing. Our fee and the government fee are always shown as two 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. No section of the Act puts a residency requirement on a PBC member, and section 248(1)(d) accepts the number of another official identity document where a member has no Zimbabwean national identity number, which a foreign passport satisfies. That is the single biggest reason a person outside Zimbabwe chooses it over a Private Limited Company. It does have to name a qualified accounting officer, which is a question of qualification rather than of residency. A company cannot use one at all, because section 253(1) excludes a body corporate from membership.
Yes. Section 248(1)(g) of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act requires the incorporation statement to state the name and postal address of an accounting officer, and section 248(3)(b) requires the statement to be signed by a person qualified to become one. Section 274(1) says who qualifies: a member, entitled to practise as such, of a profession approved by the Minister, or a person licensed by the Minister. We do not provide one. You name your own and we tell you what the registry needs from them. The proviso to section 31(1) also allows the registered office to be the accounting officer’s physical address.
Yes. It is a registered Zimbabwean entity with its own tax registration, and some large corporate procurement lists still prefer a Private Limited Company, which is worth checking against your intended customers before you choose. Opening the account happens at the bank, not at a distance: where you have someone ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe we prepare the bank pack and that person attends the branch, quoted after your estimate. Where there is nobody in Zimbabwe, that service is coming soon rather than something we do for you remotely today, because banks currently ask for the people behind the company to appear in person or to send certified documents.
Yes, conversion is provided for. It is a separate filing with its own cost, so if you already know an investor is coming, register the Private Limited Company at the start.
The name search is US$5 per application, the same as on any other filing, and it is included in our price at cost. The registry does not itemise a separate registration fee on a private business corporation the way it does for a Private Limited Company, so that half is stated in words rather than split by us. Where a figure is published we show it as its own number.
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. The five working days are counted from the day we hold everything we asked you for, not from the day you paid, because an incomplete file cannot be lodged. Where you are buying more than one item we do not publish a total, because the dependent ones run one after another. 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.
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.