Zimbabwe to cut company registration period to within 6 hours

Government is targeting to register companies within six hours in the next two years as the country's ease of doing business reforms gather pace, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.

This comes at a time when Zimbabwe is moving to become an investment "destination of choice" through the launch of a one-stop investment centre (OSIC) where all investment processes will be completed without hassles.

The one-stop shop will operate under the auspices of the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency. Zimbabwe, which launched the One-Stop-Shop Investment Centre in December 2010 wants to take the Rwanda OSIC investment model which processes investor enquiries in a few hours' time.

Speaking at the Professional Women, Women Executives and Business Women's Forum meeting recently in Harare, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was determined to cut company registration period to make it easier for both local and international investors.

"When I went to Rwanda to see my counterpart President Paul Kagame this year, I was pleased to learn that it only takes six hours to register a company. I told him that in the next year or two we will reduce company registration time to less than six hours," said Mnangagwa.

"Currently, it takes close to three days to register a company from the previous 90 days a year ago, which means we are making progress as far as ease of doing business is concerned."

Among the problematic factors in the country's ease of doing business are corruption, access to financing, policy instability and inconsistency, inefficient government bureaucracy and inadequate supply of infrastructure.

President Mnangagwa said: "It's government's desire to eliminate, by all means, the stumbling blocks (corruption and policy instability among other problematic areas) that affect the smooth operation of business in Zimbabwe with a vision of creating one of the most attractive, rewarding and cherished investment climates in the world.

"It's our hope that through addressing issues that have a bearing on the country's competitiveness, we will at least reach a two digit ranking on the Global Competitiveness Index and a better ranking will open up opportunities for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country." Experts suggest that if these sticky issues are not attended to the country investment opportunity will count for nothing as some investors will favour other countries with relaxed investment climate.