MBABANE:Zimbabwe has formally reserved fourteen (14) economic sectors exclusively for its citizens, while ordering foreign-owned businesses operating in designated industries to surrender a controlling 75% stake to locals within three (3) years, IOL News reported.
The measures are contained in Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025, titled Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (Foreign Participation in Reserved Sectors) Regulations, 2025, which requires foreign investors to offload a minimum of 25% equity annually to Zimbabweans, ensuring a phased but accelerated localisation of ownership and control.
“According to the State broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), the newly gazetted law ring-fences everyday sectors for local investors, including passenger transport services such as taxis and buses, barber shops, hairdressing and beauty salons, bakeries, employment agencies, advertising agencies, tobacco grading and packaging, artisanal mining, borehole drilling and pharmaceutical retailing. ZBC reported that estate agencies, clearing and customs services, shipping and freight forwarding, and haulage and logistics are also affected, with foreign participation permitted only under strict conditions or through recognised international brands and franchises,” reads the IOL News report in part.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa with King Mswati (pic: FB).