Senegal Company Search Guide 2026: How to Verify a Senegal Business

TL;DR. Senegal’s official commercial registry is the RCCM (Registre du Commerce et du Credit Mobilier), administered by the Tribunal de Commerce de Dakar and accessible via the OHADA pan-African portal at rccm.ohada.org and through Seninfogreffe, a national digital access initiative. The interface is primarily in French. Foreign buyers can search without a local ID but will need an account. Senegal was removed from the FATF grey list in February 2024.

What is the official Senegal business registry?

Senegal’s commercial registry is the Registre du Commerce et du Credit Mobilier (RCCM), a structure established under the OHADA Uniform Act Relating to General Commercial Law. Senegal ratified the OHADA treaty on 14 June 1994; the RCCM became effective in-country on 18 September 1995.

The RCCM is administered operationally by the secretaries of the Tribunal de Commerce de Dakar (Dakar Commercial Court) and regional courts. APIX (Agence Nationale chargee de la Promotion de l’Investissement et des Grands Travaux) runs the Bureau de Creation d’Entreprise (BCE), a one-stop-shop that handles company formation and initial RCCM registration, processing new applications within 48 hours. The APIX portal is at apix.sn.

For online search access, two platforms exist: the OHADA RCCM federated portal at rccm.ohada.org, which covers all 16 OHADA member states including Senegal, and Seninfogreffe, a national initiative led by the Ministry of Justice to provide real-time access to registry information across all Senegalese registry offices. Seninfogreffe remains the most current access point for Senegal-specific filings.

RCCM records cover commercial companies (SA, SARL, SNC, SCS, GIE), individual traders, cooperatives, and moveable security registrations (credit mobilier). Senegalese company records typically include filings back to the mid-1990s when the OHADA-compliant system was established.

What can you search?

The OHADA RCCM portal supports searches by:

• Corporate name (denomination sociale)
• Trade name (nom commercial)
• Abbreviation
• RCCM number (the unique registry identifier in Senegal)
• Legal form (forme juridique)

Each entity record displays: corporate name, trade name, RCCM number, legal form, entry date into the register, and any formalities (amendments, strikes, deregistrations) filed since registration. Moveable security registrations and mortgage records are also accessible via the credit mobilier section of the portal.

Data freshness depends on the speed at which commercial courts file updates. For Dakar-registered entities, updates typically follow within days of a filing event. Regional courts in Senegal (Saint-Louis, Kaolack, Ziguinchor) may experience longer processing lags.

How much does it cost?

Direct RCCM search access via Seninfogreffe is subject to the portal’s fee schedule, which is set by the Ministry of Justice and may differ from the third-party intermediary prices above. Third-party prices sourced from Schmidt and Schmidt’s published tariff (verified May 2026). EUR/XOF conversion: 1 EUR = approximately 655.96 XOF (fixed peg). USD/EUR: approximately 0.92 (verify at point of purchase).

Note that Senegal is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention for all document types; consular legalization may be required for use in certain jurisdictions. Confirm with the receiving party before ordering.

Do you need a local account or ID?

Account registration on the OHADA RCCM portal requires an email address and basic contact details. No Senegalese national ID or local entity number is required for foreign users creating a search account. The portal accepts international registrations.

For APIX-facilitated company formation, foreigners must provide a police record from their country of origin, a certificate of good conduct from the relevant embassy or consulate, and passport copies. This is a registration requirement, not a search requirement: compliance buyers conducting research do not need to register a company.

For ordering certified extracts, engagement with a local greffe (court registry office) or a Senegalese legal representative remains the most reliable route, particularly for time-sensitive compliance workflows.

Is the website in English?

Partial. The OHADA RCCM portal at rccm.ohada.org is primarily in French but includes an English-language interface at the search level (selectable via the lang=en URL parameter). Entity data returned in search results is in French: company names, legal form labels, and filing descriptions reflect French legal terminology. Compliance buyers unfamiliar with French OHADA terminology should familiarize themselves with the key SARL/SA/SNC/GIE distinctions (see FAQ section below) before conducting searches.

Seninfogreffe operates in French only. Translated summaries or certified translations are available through intermediaries.

What’s the turnaround time?

Basic name search results are instant on the OHADA portal. Certified extracts ordered through the Dakar commercial court or via Seninfogreffe typically take 7 to 14 business days for delivery. Expedited processing is available through local legal representatives but is not standardized. Third-party intermediaries typically quote 7 to 14 business days for electronic PDF delivery.

Is there an API?

No. Neither OHADA’s RCCM portal nor Seninfogreffe offers a public API for programmatic access to Senegalese company data as of May 2026. Bulk data integration requires manual portal access. Compliance platforms requiring automated Senegal entity lookups should engage a local data partner with a formal data-supply agreement.

For context on how OHADA harmonization shapes registry access across West and Central Africa, see our Global Business Due Diligence Guide.

What you legally cannot do

OHADA member-state registries prohibit bulk automated scraping of entity data. Commercial redistribution of RCCM records without authorization from the relevant commercial court or OHADA is restricted. Senegal’s data protection framework, overseen by the Commission de Protection des Donnees Personnelles (CDP), governs the use of personal data appearing in registry filings: director names and addresses found in RCCM records may not be used for unsolicited marketing. Compliance buyers should document purpose of access consistent with their AML/KYC policy.

Practical tips for foreign compliance buyers

• RCCM number is the anchor identifier. Each Senegalese legal entity receives a unique RCCM number at registration (format: SN DKR [year] [sequential number] for Dakar-registered entities). Always search by RCCM number when you have it, as company names frequently appear in abbreviated or transliterated forms.
• OHADA harmonized law. Senegal follows OHADA’s Uniform Acts for commercial company law. The legal form designations (SA, SARL, SNC, SCS, GIE) carry OHADA-standardized meanings across all 16 member states, making cross-border entity comparisons more consistent than in non-OHADA jurisdictions.
• IDU (Identifiant Unique). Recent reforms have introduced the Identifiant Unique (IDU) as a single government identifier replacing the historic separation of RCCM number and tax identification number. An entity’s IDU should match its RCCM record.
• Regional court variance. Senegal has multiple RCCM-filing courts (Dakar, Saint-Louis, Kaolack, Ziguinchor, Tambacounda, Kolda). An entity’s RCCM number prefix indicates the issuing court. For counterparties outside Dakar, search via the OHADA federated portal rather than Dakar court only.
• FATF status. Senegal was removed from FATF’s increased monitoring list in February 2024. The country had been listed since 2021. Removal reduces correspondent banking friction for Senegalese transactions but does not eliminate standard CDD obligations.
• ECOWAS context. Senegal is a member of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). AML/CFT standards in the UEMOA zone are coordinated via GIABA (the Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa), a FATF-style regional body.

Alternatives if you cannot access the RCCM directly

• Aggregator search (free, indicative only): OpenCorporates indexes some Senegalese RCCM filings but coverage is partial and may lag official records by weeks or months. Useful for a quick name check; not for compliance-grade verification.
• OHADA RCCM portal (rccm.ohada.org) covers Senegal as one of 16 member states. Free at the search level; fee-based for certified extracts.
• Schmidt and Schmidt (schmidt-export.com). Third-party intermediary that can obtain certified RCCM extracts from Senegal’s commercial courts with English translation options, for buyers who cannot navigate French-language processes directly.

Local data suppliers

• Creditinfo Senegal operates as part of the pan-African Creditinfo credit bureau network. Covers commercial credit reporting and financial risk assessment for Senegalese entities. Use when you need payment behavior data on top of the RCCM filing record.

Use the RCCM for the official filing record. Use a credit bureau when you need payment behavior or risk scoring on top of the registry extract.

FAQ

Can a foreign company access the Senegal registry directly?

Yes. The OHADA RCCM portal (rccm.ohada.org) is open to foreign users for basic searches without a local entity or representative. Creating an account requires only an email address. For certified extracts with legal standing in Senegalese proceedings, engagement with the Dakar Tribunal de Commerce or a licensed local greffe agent is more reliable.

What is the RCCM number in Senegal?

The RCCM number (Numero au Registre du Commerce et du Credit Mobilier) is the primary identifier for commercial entities in Senegal. It encodes the court of registration (e.g., SN DKR for Dakar), the year of registration, and a sequential number. This number appears on official extracts, commercial contracts, and tax filings, and is the most reliable anchor for entity-level searches.

What entity types are registered with the RCCM in Senegal?

The RCCM covers commercial companies (SA, Societe Anonyme; SARL, Societe a Responsabilite Limitee; SNC, Societe en Nom Collectif; SCS, Societe en Commandite Simple), individual traders, economic interest groups (GIE, Groupement d’Interet Economique), and moveable credit registrations. These entity types are defined by OHADA’s Uniform Act on Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups, which is directly applicable in Senegal.

Does Senegal have a beneficial ownership (UBO) registry?

Senegal does not operate a publicly searchable UBO register as of May 2026. Beneficial ownership disclosure requirements exist under Senegal’s AML legislation aligned with FATF Recommendation 24, but UBO data is collected for regulatory use rather than published. Compliance buyers verifying UBO on Senegalese entities should rely on statutory director/shareholder filings in the RCCM, direct counterparty declaration, and cross-reference with the Open Ownership map for regional transparency status.

How current is the data in the RCCM?

Senegal’s RCCM data currency varies by court location. Dakar filings are generally updated within days of the filing event. Regional courts may lag by days to weeks. The OHADA RCCM portal federates data from court submissions and reflects records as filed; there is no automated real-time sync.

Is Senegal on the FATF grey list?

No. Senegal was removed from FATF’s increased monitoring (grey) list in February 2024, having addressed the strategic deficiencies identified in its 2018 Mutual Evaluation Report. Senegal’s delisting coincided with Uganda’s removal in the same FATF plenary session. Source: FATF.

What’s the difference between the registry and tax/financial filings?

The RCCM holds commercial registration records, corporate structure, and moveable security filings. Tax registration and tax filings are held separately by the Direction Generale des Impots et des Domaines (DGID) under a different identifier (Numero d’Identification fiscale, NIF). These systems are increasingly being linked through the IDU reform, but they remain operationally separate. A complete CDD file for a Senegalese counterparty should cross-reference both systems.

Last verified: May 2026. Sources: OHADA RCCM portal (rccm.ohada.org), APIX Senegal (apix.sn). For the full global due diligence framework, see our Global Business Due Diligence Guide.