Cameroon

Starting a Business in

Cameroon

Listed below is a detailed summary of the bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneur must overcome in order to incorporate and register a new firm, along with their associated time and set-up costs.  It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy's per-capita gross national income (GNI).

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standardized Company

  • Legal Form: Limited Liability Company, Sociétés à Responsabilité Limitée (SARL)
  • City: Douala

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 A notary public drafts certificate requesting a commercial bank to open a bank account for the new company

In practice, banks require that a notary public issue a certificate that the company is in the process of creation (attestation d'ouverture de compte de société en création) before the entrepreneur can open a temporary bank account called "account of company in the process of creation". The banks also require a draft of the company statutes. The registry provides the name-checking service free of charge to notary publics or lawyers/attorneys who have access to the court’s information retrieval and relational database.
1 day no charge
2 Deposit the initial capital in a bank and obtain a receipt

Under Article 313 of the Uniform Act (the company law of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa), founders are required to deposit the startup capital in a bank or with a notary.
1 day no charge
3 Have an attorney/notary or shareholders draft the memorandum and article of association; sign company bylaws before the notary

Article 10 of the Uniform Act of the Organisation pour l'Harmonisation du Droit des Affaires en Afrique (OHADA) states that “the articles of association shall be established by a notarial deed or by any other instrument that ensures legal validity in Cameroon where the registered office will be located. Such instrument, together with a certification of the writing and signatures of all parties, should be deposited as originals in a notary’s office. They may be amended only by the same procedure.”
2 days 2% of the share capital, 19.3% of VAT and XAF 1000 per stamp (6 stamps)
4 Notary or entrepreneur files registration documents to the One-Stop-Shop

Notary submits all company documents and forms at the front desk of the Centre de Formalités d'Entreprises. The staff will register the company with the Registre du Commerce et du Crédit Mobilier, with the Tax Administration and with the CNPS.
The following documents are required to file an application with the court:
- Articles of association (copy).
- Location plan of business premises to get exoneration of the Patente.
- Criminal record of the directors of the company.
- Certificate of nonconviction (normally for nationals or resident aliens who are shareholders).
- Photocopy of marriage certificates (if any).
The cost depends on initial share capital (according to Article 544 of the Tax Code, or Code General des Impots):
- Up to XAF 750,000: 2%.
- Up to XAF 1.5 million: 1.5%.
- Up to XAF 3 million: 1%.
- Up to XAF 5 million: 0.5%.
- Above 5 million: 0.25%, for a maximum total levy of 2.5 million.
Each page of the memorandum and articles of association must also carry the current fiscal year’s fiscal stamp (XAF 1,000 a page).
- Declaration of regularity and conformity, drawn by the notary public and signed by the incorporators, or a notarial statement of subscription and payment in lieu thereof.
8 days XAF 41,500 for Registration, XAF 6,000 for Quittance, XAF 2000 for stamps (2 of XAF 1000) and XAF 6,000 of stamp duties for tax administration (6 of XAF 1000)
5 Publish the incorporation of the company in the legal journal (Cameroun Tribune)

The publication fee for announcing the company incorporation in the legal journal is XAF 57,000.
3 days XAF 57000
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