The short answer
OHADA – the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa – gives 17 countries, mostly French-speaking, the same core business law. Its Uniform Acts apply directly in every member state, and a common court in Abidjan has the last word on them.
How it works
The OHADA Treaty was signed in Port Louis, Mauritius, in 1993 and revised in Quebec in 2008. Member states adopt Uniform Acts together; once in force, a Uniform Act applies in all of them and overrides conflicting national law. Areas outside the Uniform Acts – for example tax, employment and land – stay national.
The Uniform Acts
The Uniform Acts cover, among others:
- General commercial law
- Commercial companies and economic interest groups
- Securities (guarantees)
- Simplified recovery procedures and enforcement
- Insolvency (collective proceedings)
- Arbitration
- Mediation
- Accounting and financial reporting
- Contracts for the carriage of goods by road
- Cooperative societies
The institutions
- Common Court of Justice and Arbitration (CCJA), Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire – final court for OHADA law and an arbitration body.
- Permanent Secretariat, Yaounde, Cameroon.
- ERSUMA, the regional training school for judges and legal professionals, Porto-Novo, Benin.
The 17 member states
- Benin – doing business
- Burkina Faso – doing business
- Cameroon – doing business
- Central African Republic – doing business
- Chad – doing business
- Comoros – doing business
- Congo – doing business
- Cote d'Ivoire – doing business
- DR Congo – doing business
- Equatorial Guinea – doing business
- Gabon – doing business
- Guinea – doing business
- Guinea-Bissau – doing business
- Mali – doing business
- Niger – doing business
- Senegal – doing business
- Togo – doing business
What it means for a foreign business
A company structure, security package or arbitration clause built for one OHADA country will largely work across the others – but national rules on tax, labor, licenses and land still differ. Work with a lawyer admitted in each country where you operate.
Sources: ohada.org and the member list on each country page, checked October 2026. Not legal advice.