São Tomé and Príncipe

Starting a Business in

São Tomé and Príncipe

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: Private Limited Company
  • City: São Tomé

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 At the Guiche Unico Empresas (GUE), check the uniqueness of the proposed company name and reserve a name, register the company, obtain a tax payer identification number, publish the incorporation record in the Official Gazette or in the special Official Gazette of the OSS or in a national newspaper.

At the GUE, check the uniqueness of the proposed company name and reserve a name, register the company, and obtain a tax payer identification number. In addition, the GUE will deal with the publication of the incorporation record in one of the following ways: a) publish the record in the next regular issue of Diario; b) publish the record in the special issue of Diario assigned for these purposes; OR c) publish the record in the regular newspapers. Any of the three have equal weight. The copy of the published record can be obtained as early as the day following the incorporation in the GUE, in one of the three instruments.
7 days USD 294
2 Deposit minimum capital in a bank and obtain deposit evidence

While no minimum share capital requirement exists for a private limited company, notary publics have refused to incorporate companies if they believe, at their sole discretion, that the capital allocated by the shareholders or quota holders is insufficient for the company’s proposed activities. In practice, the minimum share capital for the incorporation of this type of company is equivalent to USD 850. According to Article 162, No. 3, of the Commercial Code, “a company can only be established if the following is met: the shareholders have paid 10% in cash of the initial capital and that amount is deposited in a bank account in the company’s name.”
1 day no charge
* 3 Register employer and employees with the social security

Employers must register employees with the relevant social security authorities within 30 days of tax registration.
1 day, simultaneous with procedure 6 no charge
* 4 Obtain and legalize the special company books

Companies must obtain and legalize mandatory books. Some books (i.e., the general assembly and the board of directors' books) must be initialized by the court of first instance. As stated in Article 32 of the Commercial Code, “the accounting books should be presented to the president judge at the court of the company’s jurisdiction, so that the court officers can number and sign each of the pages, and prepare the opening and closing pages.”
1 day, simultaneous with procedure 6 no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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