How to Check if a Company Is Registered in Gabon

Before you pay a supplier, sign with a partner, or invest in a Gabonese business, there is one check worth two minutes of your time: confirming the company is actually registered. A real company in Gabon is recorded in the RCCM (Registre du Commerce et du Crédit Mobilier) — the commercial register that, under OHADA law, feeds the regional register shared across member states. You can verify a company for free, by name or by RCCM number. This guide shows you how, what a genuine record looks like, and how to spot a business that isn't what it claims to be.

Who keeps Gabon's company register?

Gabon's official company registrar is the RCCM (Registre du Commerce et du Crédit Mobilier), maintained by the court greffe in Libreville and other commercial jurisdictions. Gabon is a member of OHADA (the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa), so its RCCM data is filed nationally and federated into the OHADA Fichier Régional du RCCM — the regional commercial register maintained by the CCJA (Common Court of Justice and Arbitration). Every commercial company, GIE, and registered individual trader in Gabon is recorded there as a matter of public record.

How to search the Gabon company register

1. Get the company's exact registered name or its RCCM number (the certificate, contract, or invoice usually shows one).
2. Search it on Fylings — type the name in the box and we check the OHADA-federated RCCM, so you're not limited to a stale cache.
3. Open the matching result to see the registered name, legal form, registration date, and the source and date the record was checked.
4. No match under that exact name? Try a shorter form, or the French spelling with accents. Still nothing — that's a red flag worth pausing on.

What a Gabon company record shows

Gabon's RCCM record confirms a company exists and identifies it, rather than dumping its full file. On Fylings, a Gabon record shows:

• The RCCM number — the unique identifier on the commercial register
• The registered (legal) name — the exact name as filed
• The legal form — e.g. SA, SARL, SAS, SNC, GIE, or Entreprise Individuelle
• The registration date — when the company was entered on the register
• The source and date — every record is attributed to the OHADA RCCM, with the date it was checked

Understanding Gabon's OHADA legal forms

Because Gabon follows OHADA's harmonised commercial law, its legal forms are the same ones used across Francophone member states. Matching the form to how a business presents itself is a quick sanity check:

• SA (Société Anonyme) — a public limited company with share capital, suited to larger businesses
• SARL (Société à Responsabilité Limitée) — a private limited liability company, the most common form for SMEs
• SAS (Société par Actions Simplifiée) — a simplified joint-stock company with flexible governance
• SNC (Société en Nom Collectif) — a general partnership where partners are jointly liable
• GIE (Groupement d'Intérêt Économique) — an economic interest group, often used for cooperation between firms
• Entreprise Individuelle — a registered sole trader, with no separate legal personality from the owner

How to spot a company that isn't registered

Most problems aren't elaborate forgeries — they're businesses that simply never registered, or that use a name close to a real one. Watch for:

• No match on the RCCM under the exact name they gave you — the single biggest signal.
• An RCCM number that doesn't resolve to the name on the document.
• A name that is suspiciously similar to a well-known company (e.g. an extra word or initial).
• Pressure to pay before you've had a chance to verify anything.

Checking ownership and form in Gabon

The RCCM record confirms a company's existence, legal form, and registration date — the foundation of any due diligence. Gabon's economy is anchored by oil and resource trading, sectors where confirming the right legal entity behind a contract matters. For an official certified extract, you can request one through the court greffe, or verify a counterparty programmatically via the Fylings API.