Supporting Legislation

INVESTOR SERVICES CENTER (ISC)

 The Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been set up in Botswana among other things, to create a conducive environment for investors, thereby overcoming barriers to both domestic trade and FDI attraction.  The SEZs therefore offer investors a comprehensive and simplified environment to do business free of bureaucracy and red tape. SEZA has adopted different initiatives to contribute towards improving the ease of doing business in Botswana. In addition to provision of serviced infrastructure and fit for purpose property solutions to investors, SEZA provides a supportive operating SEZ environment through the Investor Services Centres.

As part of SEZA’s functions and responsibilities, it is required by the SEZ Act and SEZA 2019 Regulations to establish One Stop Service Centers (Investor Services Centers), one at the Head office and satellite centers at each SEZ.

The SEZ Investor Services Centres are single starting pointS for obtaining information regarding all necessary procedures and requirement for setting up business in the Botswana Special Economic Zones and therefore provide a link to various government departments and institutions, to facilitate investor needs.

Investor services offered at the ISCs include, among others, the following:

  • Company registration
  • Building/occupancy permits
  • Work and residence permits
  • Bank account opening
  • Commercial and industrial licenses
  • Customs duty exemption
  • Land and factory allocation
  • Tax registration
  • Doing business in Botswana information pack
  • Environment impact assessment compliance
  • Assistance in establishing business connections with local enterprises

Eligible Investors serviced at the ISC:

Investor Services Centres work in collaboration with the Botswana One Stop Services Centre (BOSSC) and other business regulators, to facilitate SEZ investors. For an investor to be facilitated at the investor services center as a SEZA client, the investor must be issued with an Investor Licence in accordance with the Special Economic Zones Regulations (Reg 30 (1) Form 5). To acquire an Investor License, the investor must satisfy specific requirements in accordance with the SEZ Regulations (Reg 25 – 28), outlined as follows:

Permitted Activities eligible for licensing and operate in Botswana Special Economic Zones are as follows:

(i)         Agrobusiness activities,

(ii)        Manufacturing activities,

(iii)       Warehousing, distributions, and logistics services, and

(iv)       Internationally traded services.

 

Activities to be carried by businesses operating in the SEZs should be carried out in accordance with the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) Rules of Origin (ROO) requirements.

In instances where an application to operate in an SEZ is for a brownfield operation, i.e. an expansion of an already existing business from a customs territory to a special economic zone, then an application shall include a statement establishing that:

    • No part of the operations of the existing business is to be moved to the special economic zone
    • The applicant intends to export 100% of its annual production or sales, except in cases where an exemption from the 100% requirement has been granted by the Minister
    • The investment in the special economic zone is an incremental investment that will generate new employment and products or services in addition to those provided by the operations of the existing business
Click here to download legislation documents (SEZ Policy 2011, Botswana-Special-Economic-Zones-Act-No-13.-of-2015-1.pdf (4358 downloads) & SEZA-Regulations-1.pdf (4365 downloads) )