The announcement that the government is planning to cut down on the many licences that make it hard to do business in Zimbabwe is a welcome development, but the authorities must stop dilly-dallying on such important matters.
We say so because the government has been making promises on the same issue for almost a year now.
In October last year there was an announcement that a committee chaired by the Office of the President and Cabinet “was working on streamlining business licences by the end of the year.”
In February this year President Emmerson Mnangagwa was quoted telling his ministers that “emphasis should be on ensuring that business does not suffer from prohibitive regulations as well as punitive administrative licences required by your ministries.
“Fees, licences, permits and regulations should promote economic development and improve the livelihoods of the people.”
The following month, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube told the state controlled media that revision of the high taxes and regulatory framework was likely to be completed by August this year.
“We will streamline the taxes; we will cut out some of them; we will reduce the number of steps required to set up and run a business, and reduce the number of licenses,” Ncube was quoted saying.
“We are aware that in some countries in the region, businesses require about half of licenses we do.
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“A good target would be to cut the number of regulatory licenses needed to start a business by half.
“If we can achieve that –halving the number of steps and halving the cost of doing business – that would be a good target and that is a target we are aiming for.”
Last week, the minister was back with similar promises when he presented his mid-term budget and this time he said the review would take another six months.
Ncube’s remarks came a week after the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency said its inaugural economic census had revealed that out of the 204 798 operations or establishments it assessed, 76.1% were informal and were not registered with the Companies Registry, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and the National Social Security Authority.
It is the high taxes and unfriendly regulatory framework that forces businesses to operate outside the formal set up and that does not bode well for economic development. It is high time that the government handled this matter with urgency and stop with the endless empty promises.
