Finance Minister Announces New Business Licence Fees For Retail And Wholesale Sectors
The Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion has announced new business licence fees for the wholesale and retail sectors to promote the ease of doing business in these industries.
However, the Ministry has not specified when the new regulatory fees will take effect, amid concerns that similar reforms for the livestock, tourism, and transport sectors, announced several weeks ago, have yet to be implemented.
In a statement issued on 31 October 2025, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said the retail sector is one of the fastest-growing in Zimbabwe.
To further strengthen it, he said, the government has consolidated several retail licences into a single shop licence, reducing the number of authorities involved in the clearance process to just one.
Minister Ncube added that under these reforms, local authorities will differentiate licence fees for smaller businesses, applying a sliding-scale structure with a capped fee of US$500 to support SMEs.
_*Regularisation of Licences*_
• Government has removed eleven (11) Licence requirements by consolidating all Local Authority fragmented licences into one unitary licence. This eases business for single shops with various business lines such as bakery, butchery, restaurant and takeaway, food factory etc. Previously, food factory licences were being charged as much as $2,300.
• Bottle Store Licences have been removed for bottle stores that are part of a retail shop, if the shop has a valid licence.
• Shops doing both retail and wholesale business will now get one licence for both.
• Factory and retail licences have been combined into one licence for integrated businesses under one premise to reduce regulatory and compliance costs for business.
• Licence requirements for supermarkets by ZTA have been scrapped from retail shops to tourist designated businesses.
• Hotel, Lodges and other Tourism business licence fees have been reviewed downwards by 50% under the Review of the Tourism and Transport sectors and further capped to a maximum of $500 per business.
• Change of Property Use fee has been capped at $1000 from as high as $3500 by some Local Authorities.
• Effluent waste management costs have been reduced from US$575 to US$200 annually as businesses already incur costs of emptying septic tanks.
• PRAZ licence fees have been combined across categories into one licence costing between $50-$120, allowing the use of one licence by all branches of a business line.
• The Liquor Licencing Board has compressed all Liquor Licence Permits regardless of the location of business, whether in the City, Municipality, Town or RDC.
• The Local Authority Financial Services Licence will now be issued as a single annual Licence by the RBZ covering all business activities in the shop, for a flat fee of $20 from as much as $1 867.
• The Permit to Sale Veterinary Products by the Medical Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) has been scrapped because it duplicates and overlaps with the Department of Veterinary Services function.
Ncube said these measures are intended to foster a conducive economic environment, boost job creation, improve productivity across all sectors, and drive high economic growth by improving the ease of doing business.
