OHADA Company Types: SARL, SA, GIE & More Explained

OHADA stands for Organisation pour l'Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires — the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa. It harmonises business and company law across 17 West and Central African states through shared uniform acts and a common register, the RCCM.

A SARL (Société à Responsabilité Limitée) is a private limited company with low minimum capital, ownership in non-tradable parts sociales and simple management by gérants — ideal for SMEs. An SA (Société Anonyme) is a public/joint-stock company with higher minimum capital, freely transferable actions, a board of directors and usually a statutory auditor — suited to larger businesses raising capital. In both, liability is limited to what you invest.

A SUARL (Société Unipersonnelle à Responsabilité Limitée) is a single-member SARL — a limited liability company owned by one person. It gives a solo entrepreneur the same asset protection as a SARL, with liability limited to their capital contribution. It converts into a standard SARL if more members join.

A GIE (Groupement d'Intérêt Économique) is an economic interest group: a structure that lets two or more businesses or individuals pool resources for a common economic goal while staying independent. It has legal personality but its members are usually jointly and severally liable for its debts, so it carries more personal risk than a limited company.

The 17 OHADA member states are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

A company's legal form (forme juridique) is recorded on the RCCM register in every OHADA country. On Fylings you can search a company by name and see whether it is a SARL, SUARL, SA, GIE or another form, along with its RCCM number and NINEA where available — Senegal is live now.