Tanzania Company & Beneficial Ownership Directory
Company register search for 45,519 Tanzania companies, plus shareholder, officer and beneficial ownership records sourced directly from official government registries.
Tanzania company register data is filed with the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) under the Companies Act, Cap. 212. Beneficial ownership runs through its own BRELA portal, bo.brela.go.tz, under the Companies (Beneficial Ownership) Regulations and Section 459A of the Act, mandatory for all local companies since 2023, with enforcement tightened from 15 April 2025 so that transactions are blocked without a valid filing. Sources conflict: the statutory text is reportedly set at 5%, while BRELA's applied practice is described as using 25%, an unresolved discrepancy worth confirming directly against the Act. Entity identity and the beneficial-ownership filing both sit with BRELA.
Tanzania beneficial ownership guideTop Companies in Tanzania
Live from the register. Every row opens the full record — officers, shareholders and resolved group structure.
Data Coverage
Record counts by data layer for Tanzania, as of the last reconciliation.
Analysis
What this data actually tells you about Tanzania
Tanzania’s economy grew a strong 5.9–6.0% in 2025, with inflation held at just 3.3% — the best in the East African Community, ahead of Kenya (4.1%) and Uganda (3.6%) — even as the country navigated one of its most contested elections in decades. President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of the 29 October 2025 general election with 97.66% of the vote after the two largest opposition parties were barred from contesting; post-election protests and a nationwide internet shutdown followed, with monitoring groups estimating the shutdown alone cost the economy $228–238 million and casualty figures for the unrest remaining contested and independently unverified.
That political turbulence sits alongside genuine economic momentum: foreign investment hit a record 915 registered projects worth $10.95 billion in 2025, up from just 252 projects worth $3.7 billion in 2021, led by investors from the UAE, China, India, Singapore and France, per TanzaniaInvest’s tracking of Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority data. Total exports rose 16.8% to $16.7 billion in the year to April 2025, driven by gold, cashew nuts, coffee and tobacco.
Tanzania’s business base is overwhelmingly small: the country counts over 3 million SMEs, more than 90% of all businesses, employing over 5 million people — about half of national employment — and contributing 27–35% of GDP, per TanzaniaInvest’s SME analysis; micro firms alone make up roughly 98% of enterprises, leaving a pronounced “missing middle” of medium-sized companies. The formal business registry counted 141,935 registered companies as of 2026, concentrated heavily in Dar es Salaam (65,690), followed by Zanzibar’s Mjini Magharibi region and Arusha.
The informal economy remains vast, estimated at 44.9% of GDP and employing an estimated 71.8% of the workforce against just 28.2% in formal employment, per World Economics data — a structural reality that shapes almost every sector covered here, from wholesale trade (where roughly 55% of informal businesses operate) to the gold-mining sector’s formalising artisanal segment.
Tanzania company base, broken down
Charts render from live counts. Where coverage is partial, the excluded population is stated on the chart.
Company size, by disclosed headcount
By number of employees on file. Entities with no disclosed headcount are not counted in any band.
Enterprises by size category
Breakdown within Tanzania’s SME population (over 3 million enterprises), where micro firms make up roughly 98%. SMEs overall represent more than 90% of all Tanzanian businesses (large enterprises make up the remainder), employ over 5 million people and contribute 27–35% of GDP. Source: TanzaniaInvest, SME sector analysis.
Who uses Tanzania ownership data
The three checks this page's data is most often run for.
KYB onboarding
Verifying a Tanzania counterparty means confirming the beneficial owner behind the entity and evidencing where that answer came from, not just pulling the registered name.
AML and sanctions screening
Sanctions exposure often sits above the operating company, in a holding layer registered elsewhere. Screening the local entity alone will not surface it; screening the resolved ownership chain will.
Supplier and credit risk
Filed accounts cover a limited share of the register in most jurisdictions, so group membership is often a better solvency signal than a standalone balance sheet.
Get complete shareholder and officer records, ultimate beneficial owner resolution, and ongoing ownership monitoring for Tanzania companies — via API or a bulk data feed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many companies does Zavia have on record for Tanzania?
Zavia holds 45,519 company records for Tanzania, of which 45,517 (100%) are currently active on the register.
Is beneficial ownership (UBO) data public in Tanzania?
Tanzania company register data is filed with the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) under the Companies Act, Cap. 212. Beneficial ownership runs through its own BRELA portal, bo.brela.go.tz, under the Companies (Beneficial Ownership) Regulations and Section 459A of the Act, mandatory for all local companies since 2023, with enforcement tightened from 15 April 2025 so that transactions are blocked without a valid filing. Sources conflict: the statutory text is reportedly set at 5%, while BRELA's applied practice is described as using 25%, an unresolved discrepancy worth confirming directly against the Act. Entity identity and the beneficial-ownership filing both sit with BRELA.
Does Zavia have shareholder and group structure data for Tanzania companies?
Yes. Zavia holds 0 shareholder records for Tanzania companies, with 622 ultimate parent relationships resolved for group-structure and ownership-chain mapping.
Does Zavia have director and officer data for Tanzania companies?
Yes. Zavia holds 1 officer and director records for Tanzania companies, sourced directly from the same official register as the company's own filing.
Can I access Tanzania's company data through an API?
Yes. Zavia's API connects directly to official government ownership registries across 195 countries and territories, including Tanzania, so company registration, shareholder, UBO, officer, and group-structure records can be queried programmatically instead of browsed one page at a time.
Where can I read more about how UBO verification works in Tanzania?
Zavia's Tanzania beneficial ownership guide covers the register, the UBO threshold, and how to verify a company's ownership chain in more depth than this directory page.