Mozambique

Starting a Business in

Mozambique

Listed below is a detailed summary of the bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneur must overcome in order to incorporate and register a new firm, along with their associated time and set-up costs.  It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy's per-capita gross national income (GNI).

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standardized Company

  • Legal Form: Sociedade por Quotas (LDA) - Closely-Held Limited Liability Company
  • City: Maputo

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Obtain certification of unique name (certidão de reserva de nome) at the Conservatória do Registo das Entidades Legais (Legal Entities Registrar)

The Registrar Office of Maputo was computerized and name verification can be done in a day.
1 day MZM 77
2 Open a provisional bank account and obtain a verification of deposit with a local bank

Before having the articles of association notarized, limited liability companies (sociedades por quotas) must open a bank account to obatin a bank statement. The bank account must be opened in the company name that was approved by the Legal Entities Registrar, which issued the certification of the unique name.
1 day no charge or bank commission
3 Register with the Legal Enities Registrar of Maputo (Conservatória do Registo das Entidades Legais); request a commercial registry certificate; publish company statutes in the official gazette (Bolhetim da República)

To register a company with the Commercial Registrar Office of Maputo, the following costs apply:
- A nominal fixed fee is charged for company matriculation.
- The registration fees vary according to share capital: amounts up to MZN 5 million are taxable at a 2% rate, and amounts over MZN 5 million are taxable at a 1% rate.
- A variable fee is payable for administrative costs up to a maximum of MZN 1,000.

This registration is final because the Commercial Registrar coordinates the publication of the company statutes in the Official Gazette. The fixed fee for online publication is MZN 475 per year for a 25-line page. Publication can take 3 days to 1 week.
3 days to 1 week MZM 1,475
4 Register for taxes and obtain NUIT from Repartição de Finanças


1 day no charge
5 Apply for a simplified operational license from the Presidente of Conselho Municipality

The steps for obtaining a license are as follows:
i) Filling in a form available at the license One Stop Shop (Balcão Único);
ii) Attach notarized copies documents proving incorporation and registration of the company (public deed, if there is any, Official Gazette where the articles of association of the company were published, commercial registration certificate) and notarized copy of the ID documents of the company quotaholders/shereholders; and
iii) Copy of the proof of issuance of the company's NUIT by the Ministry of Finance (M/06).

The steps to be taken are: fill in a form, submit it, it gets reviewed if all is correct, the request the payment and within some days (approx. 4) the license is issued. There is no cost attached to this licensing. This license has to be renewed every five years.

The activities that can benefit from this Simplified Licensing regime includes some fields in agriculture, general commercial activities, service provision, construction, sport, industry, transport and communication, tourism.



1 day no charge
6 Declare the beginning of activity at the tax department (Repartição de Finanças)

After the tax reform, a new income tax system has replaced the old. Form "Modelo M/01" must be filed to register, under a different taxpayer number, for income tax withholding (imposto sobre o rendimento do trabalho), secção A, and Form 44 is used to register for complementary tax.Since 2002, there is no Imposto sobre Rendimento do Trabalho Secção A. This tax was replace by Corporate Income Tax ("Imposto sobre o Rendimento das Pessoas Colectivas") and Personal Income Tax ("Imposto sobre o Rendimegto das Pessoas Singulares").

For VAT and corporate income tax, the notification of the beginning of business activity must be submitted 15 days before commencement. This notification must be submitted to the tax department of the appropriate fiscal district the form Modelo 6. In addition, this process requires the filing of Modelo 5 (in triplicate) and an authenticated copy of the operating license. The company is assigned unique taxpayer number (numero unique de identificação tributária) in 15 days, and an individual file for all taxes is opened.

1 day no charge
* 7 Declare the beginning of activity and register job candidates at the provincial employment center

To register employees at the provincial employment center, the employer must request work cards within 30 days of the start of employment agreements, submit a schedule of work hours, and declare the employment of national workers in 30 days of the start of their respective employment agreement.

An employer with more than 10 employees must open a file (processo individual) and prepare four copies of a specific form for each worker, listing the name, position, skills, sex, date of birth, identity card number, date of entry, date of last promotion, wage or salary, and number of hours worked each month. These four copies are presented to the Employment Center, which after stamping them keeps three copies and returns one to the employer for public posting. This chart must be updated and approved annually by the Ministry of Labor. Together with this form, the employer must submit the company’s annual holiday’s plan (plano de férias) and each employee’s work card (MZN 5,000 each), which includes identity information and the employee’s signature. Upon stamping, the Employment Center returns them to the company, which distributes them to each worker as an employee identification card.
1 day, (simultaneous with previous procedure ) Each copy of the chart costs 5 Mtcs, assuming 10 workers
* 8 Register workers with the social security system

The employer must register the company within 15 days of the start of business activity and register employees within 30 days of the start of their employment agreements. A special form (boletim de identificação de beneficiaries) must be filled out for each employee and submitted to the Instituto Nacional de Seguranca Social within 15 days of signing the labor contract, accompanied by an authenticated copy of that employee’s identity card, an authenticated copy of the operational license, and the company’s numero unique de identificação tributária (nuit). A special form (ficha da empresa) must be filed for each company.
1 day, (simultaneous with previous procedure ) no charge
* 9 Subscribe a workmen’s compensation insurance coverage


1 day, (simultaneous with previous procedure ) no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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