Company Formation & Expansion
Giving your project a solid legal existence.
Forming, establishing or expanding your company in the OHADA region. From incorporation to cross-border expansion, one same standard of structuring.
Forming, establishing, expanding: three forms of one founding act — giving a project legal existence.
Company Formation & Expansion brings together the moments when a company takes shape and gains ground. The scope remains strictly legal (structuring and formalities); related steps are framed and directed, never executed. No profile is excluded, whether native to the country or coming from elsewhere.
The offer at a glance
Three strands, from the simplest to the most complex.
Company formation
Forming your company in Côte d’Ivoire or Senegal, with the right legal form from the outset.
ii.Côte d’Ivoire–Senegal market entry
Expanding from one country to the other: the cross-border case, with knowledge of both terrains.
iii.Franchise & Networks
Franchising, joining, acquiring or selling a network — including event franchises.
Choosing the right form, not the easiest.
Forming your company in Côte d’Ivoire or Senegal with the right legal form from the outset, then taking it all the way to registration.
People speak of “forming a company” as a formality to be dispatched. The form you choose (SARL, SA, SAS) determines the allocation of capital, your ability to bring in partners or investors, and the way you protect your assets. Well chosen, it becomes a foundation.
The core of the engagement
Legal form: SARL, SA or SAS, decided according to your activity, your shareholding and your horizon.
Capital allocation among partners and the consequences of each scheme.
Founder protection: the interplay between personal assets and the company’s commitments.
Drafting of articles and incorporation instruments, capital formation, RCCM registration.
See also: Governance & Boards. Once your company is formed, we prepare, hold and formalise your board and shareholder meetings.
Two countries, one law, a thousand details that change everything.
Supporting the Ivorian company setting up in Senegal, and the Senegalese company expanding into Côte d’Ivoire, in structuring their local presence.
Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal share OHADA law and the WAEMU space. That proximity creates an illusion of simplicity. In reality, registry practices, administrative reflexes and local customs differ from one country to the other. It takes expertise that knows both terrains.
Two mirrored paths
From Côte d’Ivoire to Senegal: structuring your Senegalese presence, from the mode of establishment to local registration.
From Senegal to Côte d’Ivoire: the same logic in mirror image, with knowledge of the Ivorian terrain.
Cross-border group architecture: parent-subsidiary interplay, intra-group agreements, overall consistency.
Mode of establishment: subsidiary, branch or representative office, with the consequences of each option.
See also: Governance & Boards. A group present in two jurisdictions needs solid multi-entity governance — we organise it.
Franchising, joining or acquiring a network, on familiar ground.
We support the entire life of a franchise network in the OHADA region: deploying it, joining it, selling it, acquiring it — including event franchises.
Franchising is a powerful growth lever, and one of the most demanding structures to secure. In the OHADA region it is governed by no dedicated Uniform Act: it is built by assembling contract, corporate, competition and intellectual-property law.
Franchisor side
- Franchise agreement and pre-contractual disclosure document.
- Protection of the trademark and know-how across the seventeen OAPI countries.
- Network governance: coordination, control, sanctions.
- Multi-country deployment strategy.
Franchisee and transaction side
- Review of the agreement and disclosure document before signing.
- Audit of commitments: exclusivity, royalties, term, exit.
- Acquiring or selling a franchise: due diligence and deal security.
- Event franchising: franchising, acquiring or selling an event.
See also: Compliance. Protection of the network’s trademark, across the seventeen OAPI countries, falls under our intellectual-property strand.
The Nilaura network
An expertise carried by a network of professionals.
Nilaura Advisory designs and steers the legal strategy, then mobilises, where the matter so requires, a network of licensed professionals. Official instruments are entrusted to authorised practitioners, in strict respect of their prerogatives.
Let’s give your project solid foundations.
Tell us about your situation. A first meeting with no obligation — in Dakar, in Abidjan or remotely.