Exporting from Zimbabwe: CD1 Forms, the 90-Day Rule and the 30% Surrender (2026)

The rules most exporters only read after they have broken one

There is a particular phone call that small Zimbabwean exporters make to their bank, usually about four months after a shipment. The goods went. The buyer paid, or part-paid, or promised to pay next month. And now the bank is saying something about an overdue form, a flag on a system nobody explained, and a different surrender percentage from the one that was quoted at the start.

None of this is obscure. It is written down, in one place, in plain numbered paragraphs. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's Guidelines to Authorised Dealers and their Clients on Foreign Exchange Transactions consolidate every foreign exchange directive and circular issued before 22 April 2025 into a single document, issued under section 35(1) of the Exchange Control Regulations, Statutory Instrument 109 of 1996. The version in force at the time of writing is version 1.2, circular FXD4/2025, dated 8 August 2025. The Governor's foreword states that the Guidelines supersede all the operational guidelines previously issued by the Reserve Bank on foreign exchange transactions.

This guide walks through what that document requires of an exporter, in the order you will meet each requirement. Every figure below comes from the Guidelines themselves rather than from a summary of them, because the summaries circulating online disagree with each other on the single most important number.

Step one: you must be registered before you ship

Registration is not optional and it is not something your clearing agent does for you at the border.

Paragraph 3.2.1.1 of the Guidelines states that every new exporter of goods or services shall be registered in CEPECS - the Computerised Exports Payments Exchange Control System - through their Authorised Dealer. An Authorised Dealer, in this context, means your bank: the Guidelines define Authorised Dealers as local commercial, merchant, savings and development banks, building societies and deposit-taking microfinance institutions licensed by the RBZ to deal in foreign currency.

You complete a CEPECS Exporter Registration Form and your bank submits it to the Reserve Bank on your behalf, with a cover letter. What you attach depends on what you are:

• A company attaches the completed Registration Form for Exporters of Goods and Services, a CR6, and the Certificate of Incorporation.
• An individual or other non-corporate exporter attaches the completed Exporter Registration Form, a certified copy of a national identity card or passport, and proof of residence such as a utility bill.

It is a once-off registration. If you have not got round to forming a company yet, our guide to registering a company in Zimbabwe covers the CR6 and the incorporation documents the bank will ask for.

Step two: the right declaration form for what you actually sell

Most people know about Form CD1 and assume it covers everything. It does not. The Guidelines set out six declaration forms, each tied to a sector:

That last row matters more than it looks. If you are a Zimbabwean consultancy, design studio, software house or training provider invoicing a client outside Zimbabwe, you are an exporter of services. You complete a Form GSD, and paragraph 3.2.16.1 requires the declared funds to be received in Zimbabwe within ninety days following the last day of the month in which the services were rendered.

The 90-day clock, and when it starts

Paragraph 3.2.2.2 is the core obligation. No goods or services of any description may be exported unless payment has been made in an approved manner, or is made within three months, being ninety days, from the date of export - or when contractually due, or such other period as the Reserve Bank may direct. The paragraph adds that the payment must reflect the true current market value of the goods or services.

Two practical points follow.

First, the clock runs from the date of export, not from the date of your invoice and not from the date the buyer says they will pay. For freight declared on a CD3, paragraph 3.2.8.2 sets the same ninety days from exiting or entering Zimbabwe with a foreign entity's cargo. For monthly service declarations on a GSD or PTS1, the ninety days run from the end of the month of service.

Second, "true current market value" is a live compliance parameter, not decoration. Under-valuation of exports and over-pricing of imports is listed in the Guidelines as mis-invoicing, and Authorised Dealers are specifically required to watch for it. If you invoice a related party abroad below market, that is the paragraph your bank will point at.

The number that matters: 30% surrendered, 70% retained

Here is where the online summaries go wrong. Some still quote 25%, which was the position under an earlier directive. The current Guidelines are unambiguous.

Paragraph 3.2.3.1 states that all export proceeds are subject to the applicable surrender requirement, currently at 30% of gross export receipts. The surrender portion is sold at the prevailing interbank exchange rate, settled through normal banking channels. The retained portion, currently 70% of gross export receipts, may be retained for an indefinite period in your foreign currency account.

Two things are worth pausing on.

The surrender is calculated on gross receipts, not on your margin and not net of costs. On a US$100,000 shipment, US$30,000 is converted at the interbank rate whatever your input costs were.

And the retention is genuinely indefinite. There is no sixty-day use-it-or-lose-it rule any more. Money sitting in your foreign currency account is yours to hold. If you are unclear how those accounts work in Zimbabwe's multi-currency system, our explainer on nostro accounts and our guide to ZiG versus the US dollar both cover the mechanics.

Under the compliance section, paragraph 6.1.2.2(ii) tightens the timing: the surrender portion must be sold to the Reserve Bank immediately on receipt of the export proceeds and within 24 hours, with daily declaration to the Financial Surveillance Division.

The 50% version you do not want

This is the provision almost nobody quotes, and it is the one that punishes slow-paying buyers.

Paragraph 3.2.3.2: for exporters with overdue export proceeds, the surrender requirement shall be 50% of the received export proceeds.

Read that carefully. It is not a fine. It is a change to the split. Miss the ninety days, and when the money finally arrives you keep half of it in foreign currency instead of seventy per cent. On a US$100,000 receipt that is US$20,000 of additional compulsory conversion, on top of whatever the delay already cost you in working capital.

The one piece of relief: paragraph 3.2.3.3 confirms that exporters with overdue proceeds are still allowed to participate on the interbank foreign exchange market. Being late does not lock you out of buying currency.

Acquittal: what actually closes the file

An export is not finished when the goods leave, or even when the money lands. It is finished when the form is acquitted.

Paragraph 3.2.7.1 requires that within 48 hours of receipt of export proceeds, the Authorised Dealer pre-acquits the relevant Form CD1 and submits an application to the Reserve Bank for final acquittal, attaching documentary proof of payment in the form of a copy of the telegraphic transfer and a bank statement. The same 48-hour pre-acquittal rule applies to Forms CD3, PTS1 and GSD.

Acquittal is meant to be processed using funds received directly from offshore through normal banking channels. Where export proceeds came in as cash, paragraph 3.2.7.2 requires the acquittal application to be accompanied by an authenticated ZIMRA Form 47, proof of deposit of the funds, and copies of stamped passport pages. If the cash was used before being banked, the Reserve Bank's Retail Banking Operations must count, authenticate and verify it.

Paragraph 3.2.5.2 is the sentence to tape to the wall: the Form CD1 should be completed with acquittal in mind. Every detail you rush at the start is a document you will hunt for at the end.

Your bank is required to help. Paragraph 3.2.18 obliges Authorised Dealers to write monthly reminder letters or emails to clients with overdue export documentation, and to give exporters the list of documentation falling overdue in the following calendar month. If you are not getting that list, ask for it. It is your early-warning system, and it is the bank's obligation rather than a favour.

If you genuinely cannot be paid in time

There is a formal route, and it is short. Paragraph 3.2.41 allows an application to extend the acquittal period, supported by three documents:

1. A duly signed letter from your Authorised Dealer.
2. A letter from you justifying the need to extend the form.
3. A detailed payment plan for the expected export proceeds.

The third item is the one applications fail on. "The buyer is having cashflow problems" is not a payment plan. Dates and amounts are.

Separately, paragraph 3.2.40 allows cancellation of an export declaration form, but only where the documentation has not yet been used for export.

What non-compliance now costs

The penalty provision was revised upwards and it is severe. Paragraph 6.1.3.1 states that penalties have been revised upwards to 1% of the transaction amount or one hundred thousand United States dollars (US$100,000.00 or ZiG equivalent), whichever is greater.

Whichever is greater. On a small transaction, the floor is US$100,000. For a business exporting a few consignments a year, that is not a cost of doing business; it is the end of the business. The Reserve Bank also reserves the right to suspend or revoke the foreign exchange trading licence of any Authorised Dealer found in violation, which is part of why your bank is often stricter with you than the rulebook appears to require.

Falsifying export or import documentation is a separate matter again: the Guidelines record it as an offence under section 5(1)(b) of the Exchange Control Act . Before you deal with any intermediary offering to "handle the paperwork" on your behalf, it is worth applying the same test we set out in how to check whether a lender is licensed - the regulator publishes who is authorised, and the list is free to read.

The small-exporter exemption most people miss

Not every cross-border sale drags a CD1 behind it.

Paragraph 3.2.5.1 provides that Forms CD1 need not be completed for accompanied exports by individual cross-border traders exporting goods with a value of less than US$2,000 per consignment, and for certain categories of goods covered by ZIMRA temporary import procedures.

Paragraph 5.2.2.1 says the same thing from the individual's side: non-corporates may export accompanied goods not exceeding US$2,000 through the ports of exit without completing export documents such as Form CD1. Go over US$2,000 and paragraph 5.2.2.2 treats it as a commercial export, with the full business rulebook applying.

One related definition is useful for anyone earning abroad rather than shipping abroad. Paragraph 5.2.6.1 provides that earnings by individuals from private export, employment, content creation, performances in arts and crafts, services and fortuitous income such as awards and gambling winnings are treated as free funds - which the Guidelines define as foreign currency not resulting from export proceeds. Free funds do not carry the surrender requirement. A freelancer paid by a foreign client is in a materially different position from a company shipping goods, and it is worth knowing which side of that line you are on.

If you think a decision against you is wrong

There is an appeal path, and it has a deadline.

Under section 43 of the Regulations, SI 109 of 1996, a person aggrieved by the decision of an Exchange Control authority may appeal to the External Loans and Equity Review Committee, made up of the Governor and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, within 30 days of receiving the Reserve Bank's response. The Committee may confirm, vary or set aside the decision. If you are still unsatisfied, paragraph 7.1.2.1 allows a further appeal to the Minister of Finance within 30 days of being notified.

Thirty days is short. Diarise it the day the response arrives.

A practical checklist before your next shipment

• Confirm you are registered in CEPECS, and that the registration is under the right entity.
• Identify which form your sale needs. Goods take a CD1; services take a GSD unless a sector-specific form applies.
• Raise the form before shipment, not after.
• Diarise day 90 from the date of export, not from the invoice date.
• Ask your bank for its monthly list of documentation falling overdue next month.
• Plan cashflow on 70% of gross, and on 50% if you expect the buyer to be late.
• If payment will slip, apply for an extension with a dated payment plan before the deadline passes, not after.
• Keep the telegraphic transfer copy and bank statement for every receipt. They are the acquittal evidence.

If the gap is working capital rather than paperwork, our comparison of business loans in Zimbabwe and our review of the Ecobank SME export facility are the places to start. On the tax side, business taxes in Zimbabwe covers what ZIMRA wants once the money is in, and our IMTT calculator shows what the transaction tax takes off electronic payments along the way.

What may change, and what has not

In August 2026 the Reserve Bank signalled, in commentary around its Mid-Term Monetary Policy Review, that the export retention ratio would be reviewed in line with progress towards a mono-currency economy. That is a signal of intent, not a change in the law, and we are not going to publish a future percentage that no directive has set.

Until a new directive or an updated version of the Guidelines is published on the Reserve Bank's website, the position remains 30% surrendered and 70% retained, with 50% surrendered on overdue proceeds. Paragraph 8.1.1.1 confirms the Guidelines are updated from time to time and published on the RBZ website, so the version number and circular reference on the front of the document are worth checking before you rely on any figure, including the ones in this article.

Frequently asked questions

I export services, not goods. Do these rules apply to me? Yes. Services are covered. Depending on the sector you complete a Form GSD, TRAS1, TRAS2 or PTS1 rather than a CD1, and the proceeds are generally due within ninety days following the last day of the month in which the services were rendered.

Is the surrender calculated on my profit or on the invoice? On gross export receipts. Paragraph 3.2.3.1 says gross, and your costs do not reduce it.

How long can I keep the 70% in foreign currency? Indefinitely. The Guidelines state the retained portion may be retained for an indefinite period. There is no longer a sixty-day limit.

What happens if my buyer pays six months late? The proceeds become overdue, your export documentation is flagged in CEPECS, and when the money arrives the surrender requirement rises to 50% of the received proceeds rather than 30%. Applying for an extension before the ninety days expire is the way to avoid that.

I am a small cross-border trader. Do I need a CD1? Not for accompanied goods worth less than US$2,000 per consignment through a port of exit. Above US$2,000 the export is treated as commercial and the full formalities apply.

Are freelance earnings from a foreign client treated as export proceeds? The Guidelines treat earnings by individuals from private export, employment, content creation, performances, services and fortuitous income as free funds, which are defined as foreign currency not resulting from export proceeds. That places them outside the surrender requirement, but confirm your own position with your bank before assuming it.

Last reviewed: September 2026. General information, not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures are taken from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's Guidelines to Authorised Dealers and their Clients on Foreign Exchange Transactions, version 1.2, circular FXD4/2025 dated 8 August 2025. Check the current version on the Reserve Bank's website before relying on any percentage or deadline.