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UAE: Nafis program, possible Emiratization of freezone companies, fines and possible solutions

MiddleEuroAsia

Divergent thinker
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Nov 1, 2020
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As some of you who live in the UAE already knew, the UAE government launched a federal program that wants to force "private companies" to make sure that at the very least, 2% of their workforce is made up of emirates (will be raised to 10% starting 2025) and companies that fail in doing so, will receive financial fines (up to DH 72k this year and Dh120,000 starting 2026).
this doesn't apply to free zone companies nor small companies yet, same as unemployment insurance, but as we know things change in a whim in the UAE, and I heard from people that the UAE gov might enforce this to freezone companies starting 2025.
So, how can we prepare for this and what are the possible solutions to avoid this, or is this just unavoidable and you have to do things under the table as we already do in the MENA region?

Thoughts?
 
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this doesn't apply to free zone companies nor small companies yet, same as unemployment insurance, but as we know things change in a whim in the UAE, and I heard from people that the UAE gov might enforce this to freezone companies starting 2025.

It seems logical to apply this to all companies period that meet a certain revenue threshold. If the threshold is set high enough it won't affect smaller freezone companies.
 
I don't think it will affect small companies. This rule depends on the employee count of your frezone company. I don't think UAE will enforce this rule for low employee count(less than 5) companies today and in the future.
 

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