Investing through ZIPA: Zanzibar’s Door, Not a Mainland TISEZA Photocopy
Investing through ZIPA? The Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority is the investment-facilitation door for projects that sit in Zanzibar. It is not TISEZA, not BRELA, and not BPRA. A company that will trade in Unguja or Pemba is formed at BPRA. ZIPA may register the investment, speak to land and incentive conversations the live Zanzibar investment framework actually names, and point at zones ZIPA administers. This page publishes no tax-holiday year-count, no minimum-capital figure, and no invented schedule. Confirm zipa.go.tz and bpra.go.tz. Mainland TISEZA papers do not finish a Zanzibar file.
This page is the Zanzibar investment-facilitation operating file: ZIPA as the island door, BPRA as the registrar, ZRA as the tax desk for non-union taxes. It is not TISEZA, not a Mainland SEZ Act reprint, and not a frozen holiday table.
- Form the company: BPRA, not BRELA
- Two geographies: Mainland vs Zanzibar
- Land split: Zanzibar land
- Mainland TISEZA: locked operating guides on this site; do not paste them here
As at 10 September 2026. Confirm zipa.go.tz. This page publishes no minimum-capital figure, no tax-holiday year-count, and no zone-rent tariff. Those rows move and belong on ZIPA’s live instruments.
ZIPA is not TISEZA
The Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority is a Mainland creature under the 2025 investment-and-zones statute. ZIPA is Zanzibar’s investment promotion authority. A Dar certificate does not title a Nungwi hotel, does not register a BPRA company, and does not instruct ZRA. Investors who ‘already have TIC/TISEZA’ still start again on the islands.
The locked TISEZA operating guides on this site are Mainland files. This assignment does not edit them. If a sentence here ever disagrees with those pages on GN 487A hedging, those pages’ hedge stands.
Sequence on the islands
| Step | Desk | Not this desk |
|---|---|---|
| Screen the activity | Advocate + restricted list | ZIPA cannot waive a reservation this desk has not seen gazetted for Zanzibar. Confirm island law |
| Form the company | BPRA | ZIPA |
| Register the investment | ZIPA, if the project is one ZIPA receives | BPRA |
| Land | Zanzibar land desks; ZIPA may facilitate | Mainland Lands |
| Tax | ZRA (non-union) + Union taxes where they apply | A ZIPA letter as a TIN |
GN 487A of 2025 is a Union/Mainland business-licensing story in the reporting this site uses. Zanzibar may have its own reserved-activity instruments. Confirm island law. Do not assume the Mainland Order is a photocopy, and do not assume the islands are a loophole.
Incentives without a frozen brochure
ZIPA publishes incentive conversations for qualifying projects and, where they exist, zone regimes. Qualifying means the live capital, sector and implementation tests ZIPA currently applies. This page will not print a holiday of ‘ten years’ or a duty-exemption percentage. If those numbers appear in a 2024 PDF in your inbox, confirm they are still on zipa.go.tz this week.
Incentives attach to a person and a project. A BRELA company is the wrong person. A BPRA company that never implements is the wrong project. Claiming a holiday in a financial model before ZIPA has registered anything is how lenders later find a hole.
Zones
Zanzibar has spoken publicly about free economic zones and similar products. Names, maps and operators move. Confirm ZIPA’s live zone list. A beach plot an agent calls ‘SEZ’ is not a zone until the instrument says so. Mainland EPZA/TISEZA zone rules do not apply by analogy.
Tourism is still licensed
A ZIPA-registered hotel still needs Zanzibar tourism and health licences. BPRA is not TALA, and TALA is Mainland. See the Zanzibar tourism-licensing orientation. Facilitation is not a liquor licence.
Sequence
- Confirm the premises are in Zanzibar: Unguja or Pemba, not Pwani.
- Screen activity and land under island law.
- Form at BPRA.
- Approach ZIPA with a project ZIPA actually receives.
- Register taxes and licences on Zanzibar desks, plus Union taxes where they apply.
Where this file stalls
- BRELA certificate in a Stone Town landlord’s file
- TISEZA slide deck reused as a ZIPA application
- Holiday years copied from a blog
- Mainland derivative-right template on a Zanzibar parcel
- Mixing Zatra’s fee into a ZIPA charge: pricing only
Worked path: Nungwi hotel vs Mainland factory with a Zanzibar desk
A hotel in Nungwi is a BPRA person, ZIPA if ZIPA receives hotels of that scale, Zanzibar land, Zanzibar tourism licences, ZRA on island taxes. Mainland TISEZA is the wrong building.
A group that also has a Pwani factory needs a second person on the Mainland. Shared brand is not a shared registrar. See the two-registrars page.
Currency of this file
ZIPA reprints schedules. This page is orientation as at 10 September 2026. zipa.go.tz wins. No frozen holiday is published here.
Documents ZIPA actually receives
A BPRA person; a project description with coordinates in Zanzibar; implementation calendar; and the live forms zipa.go.tz currently names. A BRELA extract is the wrong person. A TISEZA certificate is the wrong geography. A Mainland derivative-right template is the wrong land instrument.
Incentive claims, where they exist, need the tax desks too. ZIPA is facilitation. ZRA and Union TRA still exist. Do not leave a holiday sitting only in a ZIPA letter.
What this page will never publish
A minimum-capital figure. A tax-holiday year-count. A zone-rent tariff. A map of unnamed hectares. Confirm zipa.go.tz.
Failure modes
Stone Town premises with a Dar company. Holiday years copied from a 2024 PDF. Tourism operations licensed only at ZIPA. Assuming GN 487A is a loophole on the islands without reading island law.
As-at 10 September 2026: diary discipline
Print ZIPA’s live incentive page the week you model the hotel. If the year-count moved, the model moves. This page will not freeze it for you.
Mandate-holders this file does not replace
ZIPA facilitates. BPRA incorporates. ZRA taxes island non-union rows. TRA still owns Union taxes. Zanzibar land desks title parcels. Tourism desks licence hotels. Mainland TISEZA is the wrong building. This page is only the ZIPA door.
Reserved-activity law on the islands may differ from GN 487A as this site reports it for the Mainland. Confirm island instruments. Do not treat Unguja as a loophole, and do not paste the Mainland Order as if it were automatically Zanzibar law without reading.
Work authorisations remain Zanzibar desks. A ZIPA certificate does not put a GM on a site. See the permit keepers.
What to put in the board minutes
Write that the premises are in Zanzibar, that the person will be BPRA, that ZIPA will be approached only with a project ZIPA receives, and that no holiday year-count will be modelled until zipa.go.tz is printed that week. If a broker already wrote ‘ten years’ into a teaser, minute that it is unverified.
When ZIPA issues a paper, read whether it is registration, a zone admission, or correspondence. Label it honestly in the data room. Lenders have seen all three offered as ‘approval’.
What a declined ZIPA pack usually looked like
A BRELA extract, a TISEZA slide, a Mainland derivative-right template, and a holiday year-count copied from a 2024 PDF. ZIPA receives a BPRA person and a Zanzibar project. Print zipa.go.tz the week you model. Do not freeze holiday years on this page. Tourism still needs island licences. Union taxes still exist. TISEZA remains the wrong building.
Operator calendar for a Zanzibar project
Week one: confirm the premises are in Unguja or Pemba. Same week: BPRA, not BRELA. Then ZIPA if ZIPA receives the project. Then ZRA and Union taxes. Then tourism or other licences. Holiday years are modelled only after zipa.go.tz is printed that week. TISEZA does not appear in this calendar. Confirm zipa.go.tz and bpra.go.tz.
Cross-links without contradicting keepers
BPRA incorporates. The two-registrars page splits geographies. Mainland TISEZA operating guides stay locked and are not this door. This page prints no holiday years. Confirm zipa.go.tz. If a sentence here disagrees with a locked TISEZA page on GN 487A hedging, those pages’ hedge stands. Island reserved-activity law is confirmed separately. A ZIPA letter is not a work permit and not a tourism licence.
What this desk will not freeze on 10 September 2026
Minimum capital, holiday years, zone rents, unnamed hectares. Print zipa.go.tz the week you model. BPRA still incorporates. TISEZA is still Mainland. A ZIPA letter is still not a tourism licence. Confirm island law on reserved activities rather than assuming a loophole.
A beach plot an agent calls an SEZ is not a zone until ZIPA’s live instrument says so. Mainland EPZA language does not apply by analogy. Confirm the live zone list on zipa.go.tz before the land deposit.
Implementation matters. A BPRA company that never builds is not a qualifying project because a teaser promised a holiday. ZIPA can ask whether the calendar on the application matches the ground. Write a calendar you can defend.
Frequently asked questions
Is ZIPA the same as TISEZA?
No. ZIPA is Zanzibar. TISEZA is Mainland.
Can ZIPA incorporate my company?
No. BPRA does.
What is the minimum investment?
Confirm zipa.go.tz. Not published here as a frozen figure.
How many tax-holiday years?
Confirm ZIPA’s live instrument. Not published here.
Does a Mainland TISEZA certificate help in Unguja?
It does not replace BPRA, ZIPA, ZRA or Zanzibar land.
Tourism licence included?
No. Separate Zanzibar desks.
Sources & regulators
Verify before filing: Fees, forms and lists change by Gazette and portal revision. Confirm the live mandate-holder. Law-firm alerts are discovery only.
- Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority: investment registration, zones, live incentive instruments. Accessed 2026-09-10.
- BPRA: Zanzibar companies. Accessed 2026-09-10.
- Zanzibar Revenue Authority: island taxes. Accessed 2026-09-10.
The Complete Guide to TISEZA
Not every promised incentive is obtainable.
- Every relief tested against the tax law the TRA administers: the ones that fail are marked as failing
- Licence types and current fees, on the schedule current to 27 July 2026
- EPZ against SEZ, and the capital threshold each carries
Version 2026.3 · 99 pages · PDF · free, no sign-up
Disclaimer
This article is informational orientation. It is not legal, tax or investment advice and not a government decision. Tanzanian instruments move by Act, Government Notice, Finance Act and portal revision. If a sentence here disagrees with the live mandate-holder, the mandate-holder wins. This page publishes no penalty figure for GN No. 198 of 2025 or GN No. 487A of 2025. Zatra Consultants Limited does not issue licences, permits, tax clearances or approvals, and gives no assurance of any regulatory or banking outcome. Professional fees are published only on /pricing/.