REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS FOR FIRMS OPERATING IN THE TANZANIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

There are various professional boards which govern the membership of professional firms in the Tanzanian construction industry i.e.:

• for contractor firms, there is the Contractors Registration Board;
• for engineering firms, there is the Engineer Registration Board; and
• for architects and quantity surveyors' firms, there is the Architects and Quantity Surveyors Registration Board.

Notably under Tanzanian law, a firm cannot be registered with all three boards at the same time.

In this month’s Projects & Construction legal briefing, we focus on the registration requirements imposed on firms that undertake construction projects in Tanzania – specifically two types of firms i.e. a firm of engineers and separately, a firm of contractors.

A firm looking to register with either the Engineer Registration Board (ERB) or the Contractors Registration Board (CRB) must first be registered with the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency and hold either a certificate of incorporation or a certificate of compliance.

CRB Registration 

The main piece of legislation for contractors in Tanzania is the Contractors Registration Act Cap 235 R.E 2002 (the Contractors Act). There are two categories of contractors under the Contractors Act i.e. (1) local contractors and (2) foreign contractors.

• Local contractors are firms whose majority shares are owned by citizens of the United Republic of Tanzania.
• Foreign contractors are firms whose majority shares are owned by non-citizens.

The category in which the contractor falls in determines the type of registration applicable to that contractor at the time of registration with the CRB. There are two main types of registration i.e.:

• Permanent registration.
• Temporary registration.

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