Companies in Mozambique are entered in the Registo de Entidades Legais (Register of Legal Entities), kept by the Serviço de Registos e Notariado, SRN (Registry and Notary Service) under the Ministério da Justiça, Assuntos Constitucionais e Religiosos. Filings are submitted online through the citizen portal at utente.srn.gov.mz, and registered corporate acts are published in the official gazette, the Boletim da República.

The company registry in Mozambique

Mozambique uses a single register for all legal entities rather than separate registers for companies and for other bodies. The Registo de Entidades Legais covers sociedades comerciais (commercial companies), fundações (foundations), associações (associations) and sucursais (branches of foreign entities), all handled by the same service and the same online portal.

The legal framework was renewed recently: the Decreto-Lei n.º 1/2024, de 8 de Março, approved the Regulamento do regime de Entidades Legais and repealed the earlier Decreto n.º 1/2006. Company law itself sits in the Código Comercial (Commercial Code), approved by Decreto-Lei n.º 1/2018, which is listed in the legislation index of the Ministério da Indústria e Comércio.

The SRN operates two systems. Applicants use the public portal, which submits company, foundation, association and branch filings electronically; registrars work in SIREL, the internal Sistema de Registo de Entidades Legais at central.srn.gov.mz. The same service also runs the vehicle, civil, criminal and property registers and notarial acts, so the entity register is one component of a consolidated registry service rather than a standalone companies house.

Beneficial ownership is a live obligation, not a proposal. The SRN portal instructs legal entities to declare their beneficiários efectivos (beneficial owners) and warns that failure to do so exposes the entity to penalties.

Legal forms that can be registered in Mozambique

The forms below are those confirmed on official Mozambican sources: the SRN portal for registrable entity categories, and the enterprise-survey classification of the Instituto Nacional de Estatística for company types in use.

  • Sociedade por quotas, Lda (Limited liability company by quotas) — capital divided into quotas; the members are liable up to the amount of their subscribed quotas. The standard vehicle for private business.
  • Sociedade unipessoal (Single-member company) — the same structure held by one member only, allowing an individual to trade with limited liability.
  • Sociedade anónima, SA (Public limited company) — capital divided into shares; shareholders are liable only for the shares they subscribe. Used by larger businesses and by companies with outside investors.
  • Empresário em nome individual (Sole trader) — a natural person trading in their own name, with no separate legal personality and unlimited personal liability.
  • Cooperativa (Cooperative) — a member-owned entity governed by cooperative legislation.
  • Empresa pública ou estatal (Public or state enterprise) — an entity in state ownership, created under its own legislation.
  • Fundação (Foundation) and Associação (Association) — non-profit legal persons, registered in the same Registo de Entidades Legais as commercial companies.
  • Sucursal de entidade estrangeira (Branch of a foreign entity) — not a separate legal person, but subject to its own registration in Mozambique.

The complete statutory enumeration of company types in the Código Comercial, including its partnership forms, could not be read from an official Mozambican source at the time of writing: the government legislation portal, the Ministry of Economy PDF and the Decreto-Lei n.º 1/2024 text were all unreachable, so this list should be treated as confirmed rather than exhaustive.

Information available from the Mozambican registry

Registry publicity in Mozambique works through two channels. The register itself holds the entity file: the firm name, the registration and taxpayer identification numbers, the registered office, the corporate object, the capital, the members or shareholders, the management bodies and the persons who may bind the entity, plus every registered change and the status of the entity. Access to that file is by application to the SRN, through the online portal or at a registry office.

The second channel is the Boletim da República, published by the Imprensa Nacional de Moçambique. Corporate acts appear in its III Série, which is where incorporations, amendments of articles, changes of management, transfers of quotas, mergers and dissolutions become publicly known. Back issues are indexed on the Imprensa Nacional website, so a company history can be reconstructed from the gazette.

Two categories are not open. Beneficiários efectivos are declared to the SRN as a compliance obligation under the anti-money-laundering framework; the portal offers no public beneficial-ownership search, and the categories of person entitled to consult that data could not be confirmed from an official published source. Annual accounts are likewise not part of registry publicity: financial reporting runs to the Autoridade Tributária and to the statistics authority, and the register does not publish company financial statements.

Documents that can be obtained from the registry

  • Certidão de registo (Registration certificate) — the SRN certificate stating an entity current registered particulars: name, registration number, registered office, object, capital and management. The standard proof of existence for banks, tenders and counterparties.
  • Certidão de reserva de nome (Name reservation certificate) — confirmation that a proposed firm name is available and reserved, the first step before incorporation.
  • Certidão narrativa ou de teor (Narrative or full-content certificate) — a fuller statement reproducing the content of the entity file, including its registered history.
  • Estatutos ou contrato de sociedade (Articles of association) — the constitutional document as filed, with any amendments.
  • Publicação no Boletim da República (Gazette publication) — the official notice of a registered act, citable as public evidence of the act.
  • Declaração de beneficiários efectivos (Beneficial ownership declaration) — the filing an entity makes and can retrieve as proof of compliance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which body registers companies in Mozambique?

The Serviço de Registos e Notariado, under the Ministério da Justiça, Assuntos Constitucionais e Religiosos, through the Registo de Entidades Legais.

Can companies be registered online?

Yes. Registrations of commercial companies, foundations, associations and branches are submitted electronically through the SRN portal at utente.srn.gov.mz.

Do Mozambican entities have to declare beneficial owners?

Yes. The SRN portal requires legal entities to declare their beneficiários efectivos and warns that non-declaration carries penalties. The data is not published for public search.

Where are company acts published?

In the Boletim da República, III Série, issued by the Imprensa Nacional de Moçambique.

Are Mozambican company accounts public?

No. Financial statements are filed with the tax and statistics authorities and are not published through the register.

Sources

  • Serviço de Registos e Notariado, portal do utente — utente.srn.gov.mz
  • Serviço de Registos e Notariado, SIREL — srn.gov.mz
  • Direcção Nacional dos Registos e Notariado — civil.registos.gov.mz
  • Decreto-Lei n.º 1/2024, Regulamento do regime de Entidades Legais, Tribunal Supremo — ts.gov.mz
  • Decreto-Lei n.º 1/2018, Código Comercial, Ministério da Indústria e Comércio — mic.gov.mz
  • Imprensa Nacional de Moçambique, Boletim da República — inm.gov.mz
  • Instituto Nacional de Estatística, classificação de forma jurídica — mozdata.ine.gov.mz
  • Portal do Governo de Moçambique, registos de empresas — portaldogoverno.gov.mz

Keywords

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