GCLA Portal Tanzania: Login and Online Services

Search for "GCLA portal login" and you might expect a student or job-seeker system. It isn't one. GCLA is the Government Chemist Laboratory Authority (Mamlaka ya Maabara ya Mkemia Mkuu wa Serikali), and its main online portal is built for businesses that deal in chemicals: importers, exporters, distributors, transporters, manufacturers and users.

That portal is the Customer Chemicals Management Portal, or CCMP. It has a real login with a username and password, and it has been replaced once already. That second point causes most of the confusion, so it comes first below.

Quick Access Links

• CCMP II home page
• CCMP II: Sign Up (chemical dealer registration)
• CCMP II: Login
• CCMP II: FAQ
• CCMP II: Online Support (zone office contacts)
• CCMP II user manual (PDF)
• GCLA official website
• GCLA price list
• GePG payment gateway (look up a bill by control number)
• BRELA and TRA (where your registration documents come from)

Which GCLA portal should you use?

Use ccmp.gcla.go.tz. That's CCMP II, the current system. GCLA has published a public notice, dated 13 January, saying that use of the first version (CCMP I) is discontinued. The homepage listing doesn't show the year, but the notice sits below GCLA's November 2025 price list, so it isn't recent news.

Here's where people go wrong. Some older blog posts, PDFs and even menu entries still point to portal.gcla.go.tz, the CCMP I address. When it was checked for this article, that page wouldn't open. An account made there doesn't carry over automatically, and step-by-step guides written for it may not match what you see on CCMP II.

If something you read mentions portal.gcla.go.tz, treat it as out of date. Start from the CCMP II page instead.

What you can do on CCMP II

GCLA regulates chemicals on Tanzania Mainland under the Industrial and Consumer Chemicals (Management and Control) Act, No. 3 of 2003, and its 2020 Regulations. (A GCLA price list published in 2025 cites the same law as Cap. 182, revised edition 2023, as amended in 2025. Both names refer to the same regulatory framework.) The portal lists eight online services:

• Application for a chemicals certificate
• Application for a chemicals permit
• Registration of chemicals
• Temporary chemicals permit
• Submission of precursor chemicals returns
• Amendment of a chemicals permit
• Amendment of a chemicals certificate
• Renewal of a chemicals certificate

Every chemical dealer on Tanzania Mainland is expected to register, according to the portal FAQ. Dealers who were registered on paper before the online system also have to register again online.

How to register

Registration is for the business, not for a person. Have these two documents scanned and ready:

• Your TIN certificate from TRA.
• Your Certificate of Incorporation from BRELA.

Then work through the steps:

1. Open the Sign Up page.
2. Enter the contact person's names, gender, phone number and email address. Choose a username and password.
3. Fill in the business details: name, business type, P.O. Box, region, service zone, district, ward and street or village.
4. Upload the TIN and Certificate of Incorporation, then click Sign Up.
5. Wait. A GCLA officer reviews the documents and either accepts or rejects the request. You're told by email, and a rejection comes with a reason.
6. After acceptance, log in with the username and password you chose.

Use an email address you actually check. It's the only route for the approval and the rejection reason.

A few rules from the FAQ and manual. Each company gets one account. Your username needs at least six characters, and it can't be an email address or contain special characters (the manual says letters, numbers and underscores only). If you already paid GCLA under the manual system, you don't pay again when re-registering. You attach the old receipts instead. And if you paid by mobile money, the FAQ says a screenshot of the payment message can stand in for a payment slip "for now", so check that this still applies before you rely on it.

Logging in, and what if you forget the password?

Go to the Login page and enter the username and password from registration. The manual's login screen also shows a Reset Password link. Staff Signup on the same screen is for GCLA employees, so dealers can ignore it.

If the reset doesn't work, don't create a second account. That's how duplicates start. Email your GCLA zone office instead (contacts below) and say which company, TIN and username the account belongs to.

After you log in: premise, chemicals, certificate, permit

The order matters, and the manual follows this one. Its screenshots date from late 2023, so menus may look slightly different today.

1. Register a premise. Open Premise, then Add New. The form asks for location details, plot number, and distances from water, schools, hospitals, settlements and industries. Save it.
2. Upload attachments. Inside the premise, open Attachments. Which documents you need depends on your business category. The options in the manual include business licence, NEMC certificate, EIA certificate, contingency plan, audit report, academic qualification, introduction letter and driver's chemical management training certificate.
3. Request your chemicals. Under Chemical Requests, choose New Chemical Request, pick the GCLA branch (zone office) and currency, and add contact details. Search for each chemical by name and add it. Then submit from the Progress tab.
4. Pay the bill. Once the request is submitted, the Bill tab shows what's due. After payment, the chemicals show up in your Chemical Pool. Check that they did.
5. Apply for the certificate. Open Certificates, create a new one, choose the business category (importer, exporter, user or transporter, for example), and submit it from Progress.
6. Apply for a permit. Go to the premise, open Certificates, select the certificate number, then Permit and New Request. The transit permit screen in the manual asks for the consignee, country of origin, destination, route, port of entry and exit, and a proforma invoice or purchase order number with an attachment.
7. Print the permit from the Permits menu once it's approved.

Certificates show an expiry date. Renewal is its own online service, so diarise the date rather than waiting for a reminder.

GCLA's chief said in March 2025, as reported by the Daily News, that permit processing had fallen from seven days to one. Treat that as a target, not a promise. Incomplete attachments are what slow things down.

Payments and fees

Bills come from the portal, and the manual describes them as bills you view and pay from the request page. Government bills usually carry a GePG control number that banks and mobile money networks accept, but check the channels printed on your own bill. Preferred currency is chosen on the request form, and the manual shows Tanzanian shillings as an option.

Fee amounts are not something to copy from a blog. GCLA's latest price list (approved 22 August 2025, published 6 November 2025) is mostly about laboratory analysis charges and is quoted VAT exclusive. The chemicals certificate and permit fees weren't in the sections that could be read for this article, so the amount on your portal bill is the one to trust. If a bill looks wrong, ask your zone office before paying.

Want to see what a control number is for before paying? Enter it in the GePG bill lookup.

What goes wrong

• Registration rejected. Going by the manual, the decision rests on the attached documents. Common causes: blurry scans, the wrong document in the wrong upload slot, or a company name that doesn't match BRELA records. Read the rejection email, fix that point, and resubmit rather than opening a new account.
• Two accounts for one company. The FAQ allows only one. If someone in your office already registered, find out who before you sign up again.
• Old-portal instructions. If a step refers to a menu you can't find, the guide may be for CCMP I.
• Wrong business category. Attachments are tied to the category. Pick the one that matches your actual activity, such as importing versus transporting.
• Paid but chemicals or permit not showing. Keep the control number, the payment SMS or bank slip, and contact the zone office you chose on the request.
• Compulsory attachments link. The FAQ points to a per-category document list, but that link opened the portal's home page when checked. Ask your zone office for the current list if it does the same for you.

Cautions

• Enter your password only on addresses ending in gcla.go.tz. Look at the address bar before you type.
• Nobody at GCLA needs your password. Consultants who offer to "handle the portal" shouldn't hold your login, and you should keep the account under your company's email.
• Don't send payment to a personal phone number. Bills are paid by control number.
• Confirm dates and requirements on the GCLA website before you plan a shipment. Notices change faster than guides do.
• Don't lean on old screenshots, including the ones in the manual.

Contacts

For account and permit questions, start with the zone office you selected in the portal. The Online Support page lists all six:

• Central (Dodoma): gcla.central@gcla.go.tz, +255 26 2351535
• Eastern (Dar es Salaam): gcla.east@gcla.go.tz, +255 737 878020 (per GCLA contacts page)
• Northern (Arusha): gcla.north@gcla.go.tz, +255 27 2506394
• Lake (Mwanza): gcla.lake@gcla.go.tz, +255 28 2500279
• Southern Highlands (Mbeya): gcla.southern@gcla.go.tz, +255 25 2502311
• Southern (Mtwara): gcla.south@gcla.go.tz, +255 23 2334760

Headquarters in Dodoma: gcla@gcla.go.tz, +255 26 2161630, Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.

One mismatch to know about. The support page lists the Eastern Zone office at 5 Barack Obama Drive with a number ending 021. The main contacts page gives Luthuli Street, a number ending 020 and a toll-free line, +255 22 2113320. Email is the safer first try.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the GCLA portal for the general public? No. CCMP is for chemical dealers. Individuals needing laboratory tests, such as DNA or product analysis, deal with GCLA offices directly, and prices are in the price list.

My business was registered with GCLA years ago on paper. Do I still register? Yes. The FAQ says all dealers, new or previously registered manually, must register on the online portal.

Do I need a physical premise to register? The manual requires you to add a premise after your account is approved, since certificates and permits attach to it. If you're a transporter or importer without a warehouse, ask your zone office how to fill that in.

Can one person manage several companies? The FAQ only says one account per company. It doesn't say how to handle multiple companies, so ask before sharing logins.

Official References

• Customer Chemicals Management Portal (CCMP II)
• CCMP II FAQ
• CCMP II user manual
• GCLA notice on discontinuing CCMP I (this page sometimes fails to load)
• GCLA price list
• GCLA contacts
• Industrial and Consumer Chemicals (Management and Control) Act, 2003 (PDF)
• Industrial and Consumer Chemicals Regulations, 2020 (PDF)
• Daily News: improved permit process boosts chemical import business (19 March 2025)