Deposit the founding capital with a bank
Agency: Bank
The company can deposit the founding capital with a bank directly (“compte de societe en formation”) or through a public notary. The account is liberated once the company is registered at the RCCM.
Time and cost: 1 day, included in the following procedure
Check the company name
Agency: Court
The company can check the name availability at the Court.
Time and cost: 1 day, no charge
Notarize company bylaws and bank deposit of subscribed capital
Agency: Notary
A public notary is required to notarize company bylaws and deposit subscribed capital at a bank. The procedure takes 3 days if the notary public prepares the articles of association and a day if notary only signs. The involvement of the notary is required.
The statutes can be drafted either by notarial act or by any other act, provided that the authorized signatures are notarized. If by notarial act, the notary must (a) establish the statutes (if the promoter has not done so) and issue the declaration of conformity (déclaration de régularité et de conformité); and (b) register the statutes and declare the existence of the company with the tax authorities.
The promoter may ask the notary to complete additional formalities, such as commercial registration at the court to obtain the company identification number (numéro d’identification national des entreprises et des associations, NINEA).
Time and cost: 2 days, XOF 130,000 for a limited liability company with a share capital between XOF 5,000,000 and XOF 8,000,000
Register your business at the one-stop shop
Agency: One stop-shop
Since November 2007, entrepreneurs can register at the one-stop shop which takes care of what was formerly done in seven different procedures.
Four of the procedures are taken care of by having the four relevant agencies dispatch one of their civil servants to the one-stop shop. This is:
- The tax authority to register the bylaws;
- The Commercial Registry (‘Registre du Commerce et du Credit Mobilier’ – RCCM) to register the company bylaws;
- The NINEA to get a company identification number (‘Numéro d’Identification National des Entreprises et des Associations’); and
- The Labor authority to register workers and commencement of operation.
They are all physically located in the same location and there is a timesheet kept by the coordinator of the one-stop shop that indicates the precise time with which every person in the room delivers the document.
Another two procedures are handled by the one-stop shop, and these are:
- Registration at the Social Security (‘Caisse de Securite Sociale’ – CSS);
- Registration at the Pension Fund (‘Institut de Prevoyance Retraite’ – IPRES).
These two agencies are not physically located inside the one-stop shop but are a few minutes away. What is done is that when a new file comes in, the coordinator of the one-stop shop sends the information about the application by email to these two agencies. He then phones them to make sure that they received the email. Later in the afternoon (or if it afternoon, the next day), the one-stop shop sends a courier to go and fetch the approved documents.
Fees, for firms with a capital lower than 10,000,000 FCFA, the applicant needs to pay:
- Registration fees: XOF 25,000 for the statutes
- Court Registrar fees: XOF 30,000 if the capital is XOF 1 000 000 + XOF 90 for any other XOF 1,000,000 of capital.
Time and cost: 2 days, XOF 25,000 + XOF 30,000 + XOF 90 for any other XOF 1,000,000 of share capital
