Zimbabwe has slashed registration and licensing fees for industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis by as much as 90%, seeking to attract investment, create jobs and accelerate efforts to diversify its agricultural exports beyond tobacco, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube said yesterday.
The fee reductions, approved by Cabinet, are intended to lower the cost of entering the sector and encourage more farmers and investors to participate in the emerging industry.
"We are trying to drive investment, frankly," Ncube told a post-Cabinet media briefing.
"You may know that we tried in the past to encourage our tobacco farmers to go into the growing of industrial hemp so as to diversify away from tobacco because of the anti-tobacco lobby."
He said industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis offered opportunities across several industries, including pharmaceuticals, textiles and manufacturing.
"Medicinal hemp has so many uses. Oil can be used for making drugs for curing cancer and so forth. Industrial hemp has so many uses — you can make fibre, bags and sandals.
"This is a lucrative business, and we think that by dropping the registration and licensing fees, we should be able to encourage more investment into the sector, create more jobs and grow our exports," Ncube said.
The industrial hemp registration fee has been reduced to US$250 from US$500, while the annual farmer registration fee has been cut to US$50 from US$200.
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The government also sharply reduced fees for medicinal cannabis licences administered by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe.
The application processing fee has been cut to US$1 000 from US$10 000, while the five-year medicinal cannabis licence fee has been reduced to US$15 000 from US$50 000.
The five-year licence renewal fee has been lowered to US$7 500 from US$50 000, the research fee reduced to US$1 000 from US$5 000, and the inspection fee cut to US$400 from US$2 500 per inspection.
The penalty for the late submission of annual returns has also been reduced to US$1 500 from US$15 000 per incident.
Ncube said the lower fees would reduce compliance costs, encourage investment and support Zimbabwe's drive to diversify exports as global pressure on tobacco consumption intensifies.
