Tanzania sets foreign-investor certificate floor at TZS 1.5 billion

Tanzania replaced its Investment Centre with a new authority, TISEZA, under a law that took effect in July 2025. The capital a foreign investor needs for an investment certificate is now set in regulations, in shillings: TZS 1.5 billion for a foreign-owned or joint-venture project, about USD 567,000 at the Bank of Tanzania’s mean rate on 27 September 2026. TISEZA’s own help page still gives USD 500,000.

The law that replaced the Investment Centre

The Investment and Special Economic Zones Act, 2025 (Act No. 6 of 2025) was passed on 13 February 2025, assented to on 4 March and published on 30 June. The Attorney General’s legislation database gives 1 July 2025 as its commencement date; the Act’s own text has no commencement section.

The Act repeals the Tanzania Investment Act of 2022, the Export Processing Zones Act of 2002 and the Special Economic Zones Act of 2006, and creates the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA) as a one-stop centre. Specified mining, petroleum, hazardous-chemical, weapons and explosives activities fall outside it.

Existing certificates and licences stay valid for their terms, and an investment already under way that met the minimum capital rules of the repealed Act is deemed lawful.

Registration has no floor; the certificate does

Investors within the Act’s scope must register with TISEZA before commencing investment activities. The registration fee is TZS 300,000, and the regulations set no capital minimum for it.

The investment certificate is optional, and it is the certificate that carries the floor.

Regulation 14 of the Investment and Special Economic Zones Regulations, 2025, in force since 25 July 2025 and published in Swahili, allows a certificate or special-zone licence for a business owned by a foreign investor or run as a joint venture with minimum investment capital of TZS 1.5 billion, or for a Tanzanian-owned business with TZS 150 million.

The Act treats a company incorporated in Tanzania in which non-citizens hold 50% or more of the shares as a foreign investor. The certificate lasts five years and can be renewed once; the application fee is TZS 6 million for a foreign investor.

The legal thresholds remain in shillings. They convert to about USD 567,000 and USD 57,000 at the Bank of Tanzania’s mean rate of 2,646.2347 shillings per dollar on 27 September 2026.

TISEZA’s frequently-asked-questions page, which still speaks of registering “with the Centre”, gives USD 500,000 for a foreign-owned project and USD 100,000 for a local one. Those figures do not appear in the regulations.

A separate status for strategic investors requires at least USD 50 million from a foreign investor, or USD 20 million from a domestic one, in shilling equivalent.

What the certificate gives

Certificate holders and special-zone licensees may qualify for incentives under the income tax, excise and VAT laws. For special-zone licensees, the Act lists a corporate income tax exemption for the first ten years, subject to the conditions and procedures in the laws governing that incentive.

The Act permits specified outward transfers of capital, profits and dividends through approved banks after payment of applicable taxes and charges, and requires fair and prompt compensation, with access to a court or arbitration, for a lawful expropriation.

The Act’s national-treatment clause does not require Tanzania to extend benefits under an agreement to which the investor’s home country is not a party. TISEZA may revoke a certificate if the project has not begun within twelve months of its issue without a valid reason.

Residence guidance leaves the capital threshold unclear

The Immigration Services Department’s Class A residence permit covers self-employed investors. Its A-3 category, labelled “Other sector/Industry Investors”, specifies applicants who are both shareholders and directors of a company or institution.

The A-3 fee for a Vietnamese applicant is USD 3,000, plus USD 50 for a re-entry pass for the applicant and each dependant. The Class A residence permit lasts up to two years and is renewable. A work permit from the Labour Commissioner comes first, and the application must be made from outside Tanzania.

The department’s pages still say the company’s capital should not be below the minimum “stipulated in the Investment Act”, and still list a certificate from the Tanzania Investment Centre among the documents, required only if the project was registered. Whether that reference now means the TZS 1.5 billion floor has not been established.

TISEZA’s residence-permit page mentions a 10% facilitation fee payable to TISEZA after approval; the fee schedule in the regulations does not list it.

For Vietnamese investors

Vietnamese nationals can obtain a visa online or on arrival, at USD 50 for an ordinary visa and USD 250 for a business visa.

The Vietnamese tax authority’s list of double taxation agreements, updated to 4 June 2019, does not include Tanzania. VietnamPlus reported on 1 March 2025 that the two sides had agreed to advance negotiations on, and the signing of, an investment protection agreement and a double taxation agreement. Whether either has since been signed has not been established.

Viettel set up Viettel Tanzania on 3 June 2015 and launched the Halotel network in October that year; Tuổi Trẻ reported that USD 736 million had been approved for the project in 2014. Halotel co-organised a Vietnam–Tanzania business forum in Dar es Salaam on 22 September 2026.

On the Vietnamese side, subject to the exemptions in Article 18 of Decree 103/2026, a project with outward investment capital of at least 7 billion dong, or one in a conditional outward-investment sector, needs an outward investment registration certificate from the Ministry of Finance.