Register a Private Limited Company in Zimbabwe from anywhere

Who this is for

A Private Limited Company suits an owner who wants shares, limited liability and a structure investors, banks and larger customers already understand. It is the vehicle to choose when you plan to bring in partners later, when a corporate customer will ask for a certificate of incorporation before they open an account for you, or when you intend to bid for public tenders.

There is one condition that catches most people outside Zimbabwe, and it is written plainly in the Act. Section 195(2) of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act [Chapter 24:31]: "At least one director shall be ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe." Section 198(1): "Every company shall have at least one secretary ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe." Living in London, Johannesburg or Dubai does not stop you owning the company. It does mean one person resident in Zimbabwe has to sit on the board, and that the company holds a resident secretary, either someone you already know or our annual line.

A Private Limited Company is also the route for a corporate owner. Section 253(1) of the same Act allows only individual natural persons to be members of a Private Business Corporation, and excludes a body corporate directly or through a nominee, so a company registered outside Zimbabwe that wants a Zimbabwean subsidiary registers a Private Limited Company and holds the shares.

• You have family or a business partner in Zimbabwe. They take the resident director seat and you keep the shares. This is the cheapest route.
• Nobody you know is resident in Zimbabwe. We can arrange the resident company secretary and the registered office address as annual lines, or you register a Private Business Corporation instead, which carries no residency requirement at all.
• One of your owners is another company. A registration where a director or shareholder is a company rather than a person is a heavier filing and is priced as its own line.

What is included

• Name search with two attempts. You give us five names in order of preference. The registry charges one flat fee per application whether you submit one name or five, and our price covers a second attempt if the first set is rejected.
• Incorporation documents. The memorandum and articles, the statement of registered office, and the return of directors and secretary, prepared from the details you send us.
• Filing and tracking. We lodge the application with the Companies and Intellectual Property Office of Zimbabwe through a registered filing agent in Harare and follow it until the certificate is issued.
• Your documents, delivered. The certificate of incorporation and the filed returns come back to you as clean digital copies. Originals follow by courier if you want them.

The registry numbers its forms differently across its own guidance and the various agent websites, so we do not publish a form list. We tell you exactly which documents need a signature, and from whom, once your details are in.

What we need from you

1. Five proposed names. In priority order. The registry rejects names that are too close to an existing company, so a spread of genuinely different options gets you through faster.
2. A main objective in three words or fewer. The portal misbehaves on longer objectives, so we keep it short and put the detail in the memorandum instead.
3. Identity documents for every director and shareholder. A clear scan of the identity document or passport, plus a proof of address. We tell you exactly what has to be certified, and by whom in your country, once we have seen the names.
4. Your share split. Who owns what percentage, and who signs for the company.
5. A Zimbabwe address for the registered office. A family address works. A foreign address on the application slows the file down, which is why we recommend a Zimbabwe address on every registration.

The two numbers

We publish our fee and the government fee as separate numbers, always. On a Private Limited Company the government component is US$65: a US$5 name search charged flat per application, and US$60 to register the entity. Those figures were taken from the live registry portal on 4 July 2026 and are included in the price you see, at cost.

Some agents quote a government fee of US$40 for this filing. That figure does not match what the portal charged when we last paid it, which is exactly why we show the split rather than a single number.

What happens after incorporation

A certificate on its own does not let a company trade. Within 30 days of starting business you must register with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, which issues your Business Partner Number and opens your tax heads. If you take on staff you must register with the National Social Security Authority within 30 days of becoming an employer. If your customers are corporates or government, you will be asked for a tax clearance certificate, and without one 30% is withheld from money paid to you.

Most clients buy those three together with the registration, because doing them one at a time means repeating the same document pack three times.

What this costs

Our fee for private limited company registration in Zimbabwe: US$240. US$65 of CIPZ fees at cost, included in the price. Our fee and the government fee are always shown as two separate numbers.

We confirm your timeline in writing before you pay. Prices were last verified on 10 September 2026. The full price list is at ZimCompany pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Talk to ZimCompany

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 [email protected] 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.