The Zimbabwean government has announced the removal of 291 licences, permits, levies and fees in a bid to lower the cost of doing business and encourage formalisation of the economy. The decision, made public on Tuesday, targets charges that small businesses say have long made compliance expensive and slow.
Officials say the cuts are part of a broader effort to reduce bureaucracy and boost local enterprise. The fees being abolished span multiple government departments and were often required before a business could operate legally.
For years, entrepreneurs have complained that starting and running a formal business in Zimbabwe requires navigating a complex web of charges. Many choose to operate informally or through informal digital platforms rather than face the financial and administrative burden. The new measure is expected to provide relief, although it does not address all barriers to formalisation.
Critics argue that the government created many of these charges in the first place and that removing them now should be seen as a correction rather than a reform. They note that the sheer number of fees being scrapped highlights how expensive the state had become for ordinary Zimbabweans.
“Removing 291 charges suggests the problem was never just a few bad fees,” one commentator said. “The state has become very good at finding things to charge people for, while making it difficult for them to become productive enough to afford those charges.”
The announcement has been welcomed by business groups, but they caution that the real test will be implementation at council offices, ZIMRA, banks and borders, where many entrepreneurs still face delays and unofficial costs.
Government has framed the move as part of its ease-of-doing-business agenda. However, the cycle of creating charges and then removing them has left some Zimbabweans sceptical about whether this signals a genuine shift in policy or a temporary clean-up.
For now, the removal of 291 fees is a tangible step toward reducing the cost of formal business. Whether it leads to increased formalisation will depend on how quickly and consistently the changes are applied on the ground.
