What a company profile has to prove

A procurement panel holds forty company profiles and a scoring sheet. A bank officer holds one profile and an account opening form. An investor holds a profile the evening before a meeting. None of the three reads past the second page unless the first two answer a question: is this company what it says it is.

Most profiles answer a different question. They describe a vision, list services and show photographs of equipment. The reader needs ownership, a delivery record and documents that can be checked. A profile that supplies those three items is read to the end. A profile that supplies adjectives is set aside.

What does a company profile have to prove?

A profile is rarely read cover to cover. It is skimmed by someone deciding whether to take the next step: an investor before a meeting, a bank before an account opening, a tender panel before a long evaluation. Four pages carry most of that decision: ownership and leadership, the project record, the evidence page and the cost of the next step.

Who owns the company and who runs it?

Ownership and leadership are the first questions about any company. A profile that puts them on one clear page answers a question the reader would otherwise raise by email. The page names each shareholder with the percentage held, each director with the role, and the person who signs for the company.

The same information is held on public and regulatory records. The Companies Act, Revised Edition 2023, as published by BRELA, requires a company to keep accurate and up to date records of its beneficial owners, and its definition of beneficial owner follows the Anti-Money Laundering Act ³. BRELA operates a beneficial ownership portal on which the filing roles are Director and Secretary, and which defines a beneficial owner as a natural person who ultimately owns or controls an entity or benefits from it ⁴. The ownership page of a profile agrees with those records. A reader who finds a difference treats it as a finding.

What has the company actually delivered?

A list of services says what a company offers. A project record says what it has delivered: the client type, the scope, the year and a figure the client would confirm. The Investor Documents set builds each profile around that record.

The record uses client types where a client has not agreed to be named. It never uses an invented client. Each line is something the company can substantiate with a contract, a completion certificate or a letter, and the evidence page lists that document.

A reader scans the project record for three signals: whether the contract values are of the size the next job requires, whether the years are recent, and whether the scopes resemble the work being tendered or financed. The profile makes those signals easy to find by ordering the record by year, newest first, and by stating the total and the largest contract beside the list.

A short record with every line checkable is stronger than a long record with gaps. Four contracts that each carry a document on the evidence page persuade more than twelve that carry none.

Which documents should the evidence page list?

Registrations, certificates, equipment, insurance and references belong together on an evidence page, so a reader can check each one. Each line carries the document title, the issuing body, the number and the date of issue or expiry.

What does the Investment and Special Economic Zones Act require of an investor?

Where the company is an investor, the Investment and Special Economic Zones Act, Act No. 6 of 2025, provides that the investor shall be registered with the Authority before commencing investment activities, and that the procedure is set in regulations ¹. The Authority, TISEZA, merged the former Tanzania Investment Centre and the Export Processing Zones Authority ². The Act repealed the Tanzania Investment Act of 2022, the Export Processing Zones Act of 2002 and the Special Economic Zone Act of 2006, and kept certificates and licences issued under those laws valid for their original terms ¹.

A profile of an investor company therefore lists its TISEZA registration, or the certificate or licence it holds, with the number and date. If the company holds a certificate issued under a repealed Act, the profile states which Act and the date, because the Act preserves it for the original period.

How does an evidence index support a tender?

The set includes an evidence index that supports tender uploads. It supports them: it does not replace the tender system or the procurement authority's own forms. The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority describes NeST as an electronic system for e-registration, e-tendering, e-contract management, e-payment, e-catalogue and e-auction, for goods, works, consultancy and non-consultancy services ⁵.

The index lists each document with its title, number, issue date and expiry, in the order the tender asks for them. A tenderer then uploads the documents through NeST and completes the forms the procuring entity issues. The index lets the tenderer confirm that nothing is missing or out of date before the upload.

Which financial figures belong in a profile?

A profile that includes financial information names the basis. A company reporting under IFRS Accounting Standards presents under IAS 1 now. IFRS 18, which replaces IAS 1, applies to annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 ⁷. The National Board of Accountants and Auditors issued TFRS 1, the report by those charged with governance, operative for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2021, and it excludes entities applying the Financial Reporting Standard for Micro Entities, which may opt in ⁶.

The profile therefore states the year-end, the standard the figures follow and whether they are audited. A turnover figure with no year and no basis invites a question the page should have answered.

How should the leadership page be written?

The leadership page gives each director and senior manager a name, a role, the years in that role and one line of relevant record, such as the type of project led. It avoids superlatives. A reader tests the line against the project record, and a line that the record cannot support weakens both.

Professional qualifications are listed only where the holder can produce the certificate. A designation is stated with the body that awards it and the year. The same rule applies to memberships: the body is named, and the evidence page holds the proof.

What should a project record not contain?

A project record does not contain unconfirmed figures, projects the company did not deliver itself, or work of a sister company presented as its own. Where a project was delivered in a joint venture or as a subcontractor, the line says so and states the company's share of the scope.

It also avoids ranges and estimates. A figure of TZS 240,000,000 that the client would confirm is stronger than a statement that the contract was large. A reader who cannot check a figure discounts it, and a reader who finds one wrong discounts the rest.

How is a profile checked before it is issued?

Every profile is checked line by line against its source before issue. The check covers names, percentages, dates, numbers and the arithmetic of every total. Where two pages state the same fact, the check confirms they agree. Where a certificate has an expiry date, the check confirms it is in the future on the issue date.

The register of members is the company record against which the ownership page is checked. The Companies Act lists the register of members in Part V and records the subscribers as members on registration ³. A profile issued after a share transfer states the date of the transfer.

What does the next step cost?

The companion business proposal carries three priced options. A reader who can say yes to option two has been given a decision instead of a call to schedule. The profile closes with the proposal reference and the route to request it, and it states the validity date of the options.

• Page one answer: ownership and leadership.
• Project record: client type, scope, year, figure.
• Evidence page: each item checkable.
• Proposal: three priced options.

Where does Zanzibar differ?

A company working in Zanzibar holds Zanzibar registrations, and these are separate from Mainland ones. The Business and Property Registration Agency (BPRA) issues registration documents for companies operating in Zanzibar. After a Public Notice of 21 September 2021, a Mainland company operates in Zanzibar through a registered subsidiary and not through a branch ⁸. The Zanzibar Revenue Authority issues the ZRA registration number, also called the Zanzibar Taxpayer Number ⁹. The evidence page of a profile lists the Zanzibar documents under their own heading, and the company confirms the current position with BPRA and ZRA.

How Zatra Consultants and NEMBO handle this

Zatra Consultants Limited authors and checks the content and the figures in a profile. NEMBO designs, produces and delivers the document. Short documents are targeted at under 30 minutes from complete details. Standard documents take hours. Research documents are dated in the written quote.

The desk presents what the company supplies and substantiates. It does not decide or guarantee any bank's, panel's, officer's or authority's decision, and a profile does not replace a regulator's own form.

What to do now

1. Put ownership on page one. Name each shareholder with the percentage, each director with the role, and the signatory.
2. Build the project record. For each contract state the client type, scope, year and a figure the client would confirm.
3. Assemble the evidence page. List each certificate with issuer, number and date, and check that none has expired.
4. Agree the profile with the records. Compare the ownership page with the BRELA and beneficial ownership records before issue.
5. Name the financial basis. State the year-end, the standard and whether the figures are audited.
6. Confirm Zanzibar separately. List Zanzibar registrations under their own heading and confirm them with BPRA and ZRA.