CRUCIAL CHANGES ON THE LAW OF NON-CITIZEN EMPLOYMENT IN TANZANIA

In an attempt to foster investment in Tanzania, the government has

recently amended the Non-Citizens (Employment Regulation) Act, [Cap.
436] “the Act” to create more favorable conditions on employment of
non-citizens. The changes are brought by the Written Laws (Miscellaneous
Amendments) Act No. 4 of 2021(Hereinafter the “Amendment Act”). The
new amendments to the Act have brought significant changes on
employment of Non-Citizens. The most salient changes are briefly
highlighted herein below:

a) Incentives to Investors
Section 19 of the Act which provided for incentives to investors has been
repealed and replaced with a new provision. Section 19 of the Act has
been amended by section 45 of the Amendment Act so as to allow
investors registered under the Tanzania Investment Center “TIC” and the
Economic Processing Zone Authority, “EPZA” to employ up to ten non-
citizens without being subjected to any conditions under the Act save for
the requirement to pay prescribed fees. This means there is no strict
condition of qualification for the 10 non-citizen employees for the
registered investors.

Further, the amended Section 19(2) of the Act provides that the immigrant
quota shall not preclude the investor from employing other non-citizens
provided that such employment complies with the employment ratio of
one non-citizen to ten local employees and the investor has satisfied the
Labour Commissioner that the nature of his business demands such
number of non-citizens. This entails that an investor can employ other non-
citizens as long as the nature of business demands so and the provided
employment ratio is satisfied.

Additionally Section 19(3) of the Act, as amended, states that for an

employer who is not a registered investor and the nature of business does
not permit employment of local employees as per the required ratio, be
subjected to the requirement of creating employment opportunities at
the ratio of one non-citizen to ten local employees.
 b) Validity of Work Permit
Section 12 (4) of the Act has been amended by section 43 of the
Amendment Act by increasing the period of work permit validity from the
previous five (5) years to eight (8) years. This means that the total period
of validity of the first grant and its renewals should not exceed 8 years.
Therefore a non-citizen whose permit was to expire after the end of five
years can now apply for a new permit up to three (3) more years. Hence
a non-citizen can be employed in Tanzania for a maximum period of
eight (8) years.

c) Issuance of Permit through Electronic System.

Section 42 of the Amendment Act has amended Section 10 of the Act by
adding new sub-section 4 which introduces electronic system for applying
and issuing work permits. The electronic system for work permit is already
operational and functioning for the past few months.

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