The director-general of Mozambique's one-stop business registration centre, the Balcão de Atendimento Único (BAU), Daniel Bay, called on Thursday, 3 July, in Maputo, for accelerated digitalisation and administrative simplification to ease the formalisation of small businesses and reduce the bureaucratic burden on entrepreneurs. He made the remarks during the 61st edition of the Maputo International Trade Fair (FACIM 2026).
According to Daniel Bay, the BAU allows citizens to complete multiple administrative procedures at a single service point, ranging from company name reservation to obtaining a Tax Identification Number (NUIT) and registering employees with the social security system. The centre currently operates across 129 service points nationwide. "What we want is for citizens, when they visit the BAU, to be able to handle all their documentation in a single shop," he said.
Bay also highlighted the expansion of licensing regimes through prior notification and a simplified regime. The prior notification pathway has grown from 106 to 126 services, while the simplified regime absorbed an additional 47 of the 59 previously existing services, with a further 67 activities set to be incorporated. Processing times have also been cut, from 24 hours to two hours under the prior notification pathway, and from three days to 24 hours under the simplified regime.
Bay further underscored the revision of fee structures and the introduction of digital platforms and electronic payments, aimed at making procedures more accessible and transparent. "Our systems are in the process of interoperability with some, but the idea is to combine and connect all other entities so that there is effective interoperability among the different stakeholders," he explained, referring to the linkage between public institutions to enable fast and secure data sharing.
Alexandra Antunes, head of the Inclusive Growth Unit at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), argued that formalisation should be viewed by entrepreneurs as a growth opportunity rather than merely a regulatory obligation. Since 2022, the UNDP has been working with the Ministry of Economy, in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and with funding from the European Union, on a project supporting the transition from the informal sector to sustainable growth.
According to Antunes, approximately 80% of Mozambique's active workforce operates in the informal economy, leaving workers without access to social protection, financing, organised markets, and labour rights. She added that informality contributes to a loss of up to 40% of the state's potential tax revenue and to persistently low levels of productivity.
For the UNDP representative, formalisation must be made simpler and more useful for micro-entrepreneurs through a single entry point and the integration of different public services. "We have to look at the formalisation process not solely as an obligation, but to look at formalisation as a value proposition," she argued, adding that entrepreneurs should view the state as "a single entity".
Antunes concluded by stressing that the success of formalisation policies should not be measured solely by the number of registered companies, but also by their capacity to survive, generate revenue, grow, and access financing and markets. "We do not just want to have the companies, we also want them to remain," she said, placing digitalisation, administrative simplification, and access to growth opportunities at the centre of the small business formalisation agenda.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/09/03/negocios/facim-2026-bau-defende-digitalizacao-para-facilitar-formalizacao-de-pequenos-negocios/
