Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in Southern Africa, is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Mozambique to the east, South Africa to the south, and Botswana to the southwest. Zimbabwe, which the United Kingdom annexed as Southern Rhodesia from the British South Africa Company in 1923, obtained its independence in 1980. It is divided into eight provinces and two cities with provincial status. Zimbabwe's capital is Harare, and it has 16 official languages, the main ones being English, Shona, and Ndebele.

Zimbabwe operates a multi-currency that allows use of the Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG), a successor currency to the Zimbabwe dollar (ZWL), and certain foreign currencies, mainly the United States dollar (USD), the Botswana pula (BWP), and the South African rand (ZAR), to settle local obligations. Exporters can retain and utilise export earnings in order to import goods and services, but a 30-day time limit has been imposed to use the funds, failure of which results in the balance being converted to ZWL at the ruling weighted auction rate (foreign currency is auctioned once a week by the Central Bank) together with funds that are sold at auction by the government of Zimbabwe. Prior to Zimbabwe Gold, which became legal tender on 8 April 2023, the Zimbabwe dollar was legal tender from February 2019 to April 2024.

Businesses are required to display prices of goods and services in both Zimbabwe dollars and US dollars. Payment of various taxes (e.g. VAT, PAYE, and CIT) must be paid in foreign currency on earnings that are made in foreign currency. In addition, various statutory levies are denominated in US dollars.

Zimbabwe has had a troubled investment environment in the recent past, largely due to an unstable political situation and the rather chaotic land reform programme that the government embarked on. The land reform programme, in brief, entailed the taking over of white-owned farmland to resettle landless black people with compensation limited to improvements. The government's position has been that the reform programme was agreed on with the former colonisers and compensation of USD 3.5 billion for the improvements to be paid.

Zimbabwe's Second Republic was ushered in in 2018, following the ouster of the late president of the first republic, R. G. Mugabe, after which the country enjoyed relative stability. The Second Republic has been trying to end sanctions, re-integrate into the commonwealth, and attract foreign direct investment (FDI), with limited success, whilst they are attempting to improve the country's investment policy (ease of doing business). After the general elections that were held in August 2023, inflation has once again spiralled out of control, as cost of goods and services increase. The Zimbabwe dollar has depreciated significantly against hard currencies.

Zimbabwe opposes foreign domination of certain sectors of its economy. In this regard, the investment legislation, on the one hand, prescribes local participation requirements in most enterprises and, on the other hand, provides for limited investment protection and investment incentives. Mandatory indigenisation laws that prescribed at least 51% ownership of all foreign-owned companies to local shareholders have been abolished.

Various tax incentives have been introduced in an attempt to grow FDI. A new Stock Exchange, the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX), where their listed shares will be denominated in foreign currency, has been operational since 2020. This is designed to attract foreign investors. The VFEX operates in the Victoria Falls Special Economic Zone that enjoys a lower tax rate in the form of 5% dividends tax for foreign investors (standard rate is 15%), exemption from capital gains withholding tax (WHT), and relaxed foreign exchange control restrictions.

PwC Zimbabwe supports clients with the local knowledge and skill of its people, access to a broad range of other professionals across the PwC global network of firms, and enabling tools and knowledge systems.