The Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (abbreviated as OHADA) is an intergovernmental organization for legal integration. It was established by the Treaty of 17 October 1993 signed in Port Louis (Mauritius), as revised on 17 October 2008 in Quebec (Canada). To date, this organization brings together 17 African countries and remains open to any member state of the African Union, or any State which, though not a member of the AU, is invited to join by common consent of the OHADA Member States.
OHADA was created in a context of acute economic crisis and a drastic fall of investment level in Africa. Legal and judicial insecurity were identified as a major cause of investor distrust. The obsolescence, disparity and inaccessibility of rules governing economic operations led to legal insecurity materialized by the difficulty to determine the applicable rule in a given operation. The situation was compounded by the poor state of courts, the inadequate judicial personnel, and the lack of stakeholders training in business law, judicial delays and problems of professional ethics. To remedy the situation, OHADA was tasked with streamlining the legal environment of companies in order to guarantee the legal and judicial security of economic activities, with a view to stimulating investment and creating a new development pole in Africa.
To achieve this, OHADA:
- produces a simple, up-to-date, harmonized and suitable business laws for its Member States, in order to facilitate business activities. The law is contained in Uniform Acts which, once adopted, apply equally in all Member States. Ten Uniform Acts have been adopted so far;
- ensures that the harmonized law is applied with due diligence, under conditions that guarantee the legal security of economic activities. This objective is achieved by securing the legal settlement of business litigations and by promoting alternative methods of dispute resolution.
Timeline of ratification and entry into force of the OHADA Treaty in Member States
No. | Member State | Ratification/Accession | Deposit of ratification instruments | Entry into force |
1 | Guinea Bissau | January 15, 1994 | December 26, 1995 | February 20, 1996 |
2 | Senegal | June 14, 1994 | June 14, 1994 | September 18, 1995 |
3 | Central Afr.Rep. | January 13, 1995 | January 13, 1995 | September 18, 1995 |
4 | Mali | February 7, 1995 | March 23, 1995 | September 18, 1995 |
5 | Comoros | February 20, 1995 | April 10, 1995 | September 18, 1995 |
6 | Burkina Faso | March 6, 1995 | April 16, 1995 | September 18, 1995 |
7 | Benin | March 8, 1995 | March 10, 1995 | September 18, 1995 |
8 | Niger | June 5, 1995 | July 18, 1995 | September 18, 1995 |
9 | Ivory Coast | September 29, 1995 | December 13, 1995 | February 11, 1996 |
10 | Cameroon | October 20, 1995 | October 4, 1996 | December 3, 1996 |
11 | Togo | October 27, 1995 | November 20, 1995 | January 19, 1996 |
12 | Chad | April 13, 1996 | May 3, 1996 | July 2, 1996 |
13 | Congo | May 28, 1997 | May 18, 1999 | July 17, 1999 |
14 | Gabon | February 2, 1998 | February 4, 1998 | April 5, 1998 |
15 | Equatorial Guinea | April 16, 1999 | June 15,1999 | August 13, 1999 |
16 | Guinea | May 5, 2000 | September 22, 2000 | November 21, 2000 |
17 | DRC | July 13, 2012 | September 12, 2012 |
Timeline of adoption of OHADA Uniform Acts by the Council of Ministers of Justice and Finance
Uniform Act | Date of Adoption | Publication | Update | ||
Rules of Procedure of the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration | April 18, 1996 | November 1st, 1997 | January 30, 2014 | ||
General commercial law | April 17, 1997 | October 1st, 1997 | December 15, 2010 | ||
Commercial companies and economic interest groups | April 17, 1997 | October 1st, 1997 | January 30, 2014 | ||
Law of securities | April 17, 1997 | July 1st, 1998 | December 15, 2010 | ||
Simplified recovery procedures and measures of execution | April 10, 1998 | June 1st, 1998 | |||
Insolvency law | April 10, 1998 | July 1st, 1998 | September 10, 2015 | ||
Arbitration law | March 11, 1999 | May 15, 1999 | November 23, 2017 | ||
CCJA Rules of arbitration | March 11, 1999 | May 15, 1999 | November 23, 2017 | ||
Accounting Law | March 23, 2000 | November 20, 2000 | January 26, 2017 | ||
Contracts for the carriage of goods by road | March 22, 2003 | July 31st, 2003 | |||
Cooperatives | December 15, 2010 | February 15, 2011 | |||
Mediation Law | November 23, 2017 | December 15, 2017 |