Business
OHADA Uniform Acts as directly applicable commercial law, with the CCJA as final appeal
Commercial law is not primarily national. The OHADA Uniform Acts apply directly and take precedence over conflicting domestic provisions, and the Cour commune de justice et d'arbitrage (CCJA) in Abidjan — not the national supreme court — is the final instance on their interpretation. Dakar has dedicated commercial courts created in 2017, and the Cour d'Appel de Commerce hears commercial appeals. Petroleum and gas legislation adopted from 2019 governs the Sangomar and Grand Tortue developments.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — The Tribunal de Commerce de Dakar holds the RCCM and hears commercial disputes at first instance; the CCJA in Abidjan is the final instance on Uniform Act questions.
- Deadline — Company registration in the RCCM: filed before commencing trade; the registry issues the numéro RCCM
- Deadline — Conciliation préventive: opened before cessation of payments, unlike the redressement judiciaire which follows it
- Deadline — CCJA appeal (pourvoi): two months from service of the contested national appellate decision
Governing law
- Traité de Port-Louis instituant l'OHADA (1993, revised Québec 2008) — binding on this state since 1995
- Acte uniforme relatif au droit commercial général (revised 2010) — general commercial law and the Registre du Commerce et du Crédit Mobilier
- Acte uniforme relatif au droit des sociétés commerciales et du GIE (revised 2014) — company forms, including the SAS and the single-shareholder SARL
- Acte uniforme portant organisation des procédures collectives d'apurement du passif (revised 2015) — insolvency and the conciliation préventive
- Acte uniforme portant organisation des sûretés (revised 2010) — security interests and the agent des sûretés
- Acte uniforme relatif au droit de l'arbitragerevised 2017
- Loi n° 2019-03 portant Code pétrolier
- Loi n° 2018-03 portant Code minier
- Loi n° 2017-25 créant les tribunaux de commerce
In practice
OHADA (Organisation pour l'harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires) is a treaty organisation of seventeen mainly francophone African states that legislates directly for its members through Uniform Acts. Because those Acts are self-executing and supreme over national commercial law, a practitioner in any member state works from the same commercial code as a practitioner in any other — the meaningful national variation lies in the courts, the registries and the tax treatment, not in the substantive company or security law.