Govt scraps CBZ US$20 e-passport application fee

It looks like the government has come to its senses and scrapped the US$20 application fee for e-passports according to Statutory Instrument No. 3 of 2022.

The SI reads as follows:

Statutory Instrument 3 of 2022.

[CAP. 4:01 Citizenship (Passport Fees) Regulations. 2022

IT is hereby notified that the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage has, in terms of section 22 of the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act [Chapter 4:01]. made the following regulations:—

1. These regulations may be cited as the Citizenship (Passport Fees) Regulations, 2022.

2. For the purposes of these regulations—”passport” means a machine-readable passport or an electronically-readable passport.

3. The Minister has fixed passport fees as specified in the Schedule.

SCHEDULE

FEES

The fees payable for obtaining one’s passport shall be—

(a) passport issued on non-emergency basis……………………USD$100,00

(b) emergency passport ……………………………………………………….USDS200.00.

4. The Citizenship (Passport Fees) Regulations, 2021, published in Statutory Instrument 273 of 2021, are repealed.

Via Pindula News

The nominal fee of US$20 has been removed from what we saw in SI 273 of 2021

So, if you were for some reason unaware, there was a US$20 application fee for the new e-passports that had to be paid to CBZ Bank. This fee was shrouded in mystery because no one understood why we had to make the e-passport application process even more cumbersome by adding an unnecessary step.

Furthermore, CBZ Bank’s commission for handling the transaction was not disclosed. This was worrying because there are millions of Zimbabweans who are flocking to get passports meaning that CBZ Bank was going to make some serious money off the application fee commissions.

No prizes for guessing that 2022 would kick off with 2020 and 2021 walk backs on policies that should have been put to the public before passing them…

Update 10/01/2022: A previous version of this article read that First Capital was also an e-passport application receiving bank. This was incorrect you can click the link *here* for more

You should also read

• Everything you need to know about Zim’s new e-passport
• Zim’s e-passports: does the govt have enough material for the tsunami that is to come?
• Why does CBZ have a monopoly on e-passport application fees?
• e-passports: govt “breaks” CBZ monopoly, plus expiration date for old passports