Data-center law in Nicaragua

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-05

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Nicaragua has no data-center-specific siting, permitting, or utility statute; a qualifying data-processing, hosting, or digital-services operation can instead access the general export free-zone incentive regime of Ley No. 917, Ley de Zonas Francas de Exportacion (2015).

The Act lets a service-oriented free zone be established for export-oriented operations, administered by the Comision Nacional de Zonas Francas and, for state-owned zones, the Corporacion de Zonas Francas, and grants a qualifying operator income-tax, customs-duty, and municipal-tax exemptions rather than imposing land-use, environmental-review, energy-grid, water-utility, construction, or air-emissions duties specific to a data center.

Instruments on record

1 instrument on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Public agreements

What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?

Ley No. 917, Ley de Zonas Francas de Exportación

In force

Ley No. 917 (8-Oct-2015)

Effective 2015-10-16 · Applies to both

Article 3 lists the categories of export free zone an investor may establish, including a zona franca de servicios, a services free zone, alongside manufacturing, logistics, and outsourcing zones. Article 21 creates the Comision Nacional de Zonas Francas as the regulatory body that approves and oversees zone operators; article 9 creates the Corporacion de Zonas Francas to administer state-owned zones.

Article 16 grants an approved Empresa Operadora de Zona Franca a 100 percent income-tax exemption on the zone's operations for fifteen years, renewable once, plus exemptions from import duties on machinery and equipment, incorporation and stamp taxes, real-property transfer tax, indirect and municipal taxes.

Article 20 grants an approved Empresa Usuaria de Zona Franca a 100 percent income-tax exemption for its first ten years, falling to 60 percent from the eleventh year onward, plus customs, municipal, and export-tax exemptions on its zone operations. Neither article, nor any other provision located in this Act, addresses electricity grid interconnection, water use, or air emissions specifically.

Source: Full text of law

Every entry cites the instrument it describes. None of it is legal advice: verify a citation before relying on it. Full sourcing: read the methodology. The rest of the record: all jurisdictions.