Recruit
Togo Company Registration
-
Drew Donnelly
- Published
- August 17, 2026
- Foreign investors can set up a SARL (Société à Responsabilité Limitée), an SA (Société Anonyme), or a branch office in Togo, all governed by OHADA's harmonized business laws across 17 African member states.
- Company creation runs through the Centre de Formalités des Entreprises, a single-window authority that also triggers tax and social security registration in one visit.
- Togo climbed from 84th to 15th place globally in the World Bank's "starting a business" ranking, with incorporation now taking as little as three steps and roughly two and a half days on average.
- Getting the structure, licensing, and payroll setup right from the outset still requires local expertise, which is why most foreign employers pair incorporation with an experienced in-country partner.
- 5 ★ on G2
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Why Register a Company in Togo?
Togo‘s economic case rests heavily on geography. The Port of Lomé is West Africa’s only natural deep-water port and one of the region’s busiest container gateways, handling over 30 million tonnes of cargo annually. Roughly 90% of Togo’s commercial exchanges move through the sea, and the port has become a critical transit route for landlocked neighbors like Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali, which send the bulk of their imports and exports through coastal ports including Lomé. As a member of both ECOWAS and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU/UEMOA), Togo gives companies tariff-free access to a combined market of hundreds of millions of consumers, making it an attractive base for regional distribution, logistics, and light manufacturing operations rather than just a standalone domestic market play.
On the regulatory side, Togo has pushed through a sustained run of OHADA-aligned reforms that materially shortened and cheapened the incorporation process. The government abolished mandatory notarization of company documents, digitized the commercial registry, and linked it directly to the one-stop registration center, cutting a process that takes weeks elsewhere in the region down to a few days. The workforce is young and growing, with a labour force of roughly 3.26 million people, and French remains the working language of business, which suits companies already operating across Francophone West Africa. Government messaging around the Togo 2025/PND development agenda continues to emphasize attracting foreign direct investment into logistics, agribusiness, and light industry clustered around the port and the Adétikopé Industrial Platform.
That said, the opportunity comes with real caveats worth weighing honestly. GDP per capita remains low, at under USD 1,000, and informal employment is widespread, meaning the formal talent pool for specialized roles can be shallow outside Lomé. Bureaucratic efficiency at the registration stage does not always carry through to every downstream process — tax administration, customs clearance, and dispute resolution can still be slower and less predictable than the headline incorporation statistics suggest. Currency is the CFA franc (XOF), pegged to the euro, which limits currency risk but ties monetary policy to eurozone conditions. Businesses considering Togo should treat the fast, low-cost registration process as a genuine advantage, but plan for a longer runway on compliance, banking, and staffing before operations are fully up to speed.
Comparison of Common Business Structures in Togo
| Structure | Best For | Setup Time | Key Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| SARL (Société à Responsabilité Limitée) | Small and mid-sized foreign-owned subsidiaries | A few days to about 2 weeks | No statutory minimum capital, but a nominal amount is needed to issue shares; at least one manager (gérant) |
| SA (Société Anonyme) | Larger operations, regulated sectors, or companies planning to raise outside capital | 2-4 weeks | Minimum share capital of XOF 10,000,000; board of directors and, in most cases, a statutory auditor |
| Branch Office (Succursale) | Foreign companies testing the market before committing to a permanent local entity | 1-2 weeks | No minimum capital, but must appoint a local authorized director and convert into a subsidiary within 2 years |
| Representative Office | Market research, liaison, or non-revenue-generating activity only | 1-2 weeks | Cannot conduct commercial/revenue activity; limited to promotional and coordination functions |
Step-by-Step Process to Set Up a Company in Togo
1
Reserve the Company Name and Prepare Founding Documents
Choose a unique company name and draft the articles of association (statuts) in line with the OHADA Uniform Act on Commercial Companies, specifying the chosen structure, share capital, and management.
2
For an SA, the minimum capital must be deposited with a local bank before registration; SARLs generally have no fixed minimum but still need an account for the nominal share deposit.
3
File the Complete Application with the Centre de Formalités des Entreprises
The CFE operates as a single window, so submitting one file there triggers registration with the Commercial and Movable Credit Register (RCCM), the tax authority, and social security simultaneously.
4
Obtain the RCCM Registration and Unique Business Identification Number
Once the CFE processes the file, the company receives its RCCM number, confirming its legal existence, usually within a few business days.
5
Register For Tax With the Office Togolais des Recettes
The OTR issues the company’s Numéro d’Identification Fiscale (tax ID), which is required for invoicing, VAT, and corporate tax obligations going forward.
6
Employers must enroll with CNSS before hiring their first employee so that social security contributions can be declared and paid correctly from day one.
7
Secure any Sector-Specific Licenses and Open Operational Bank Accounts
Depending on the business activity (import/export, financial services, telecoms, etc.), additional sector licenses may be needed before commercial operations can begin.
Hiring and Managing Employees
Not every company entering Togo needs to incorporate immediately. Many businesses start by using an Employer of Record, which allows them to hire staff in Togo legally through a locally established entity without setting up their own company first. This is particularly useful for testing the market around Lomé’s logistics and trade sector before committing to a permanent SARL or SA, and it shifts the burden of payroll, tax withholding, and labor law compliance onto the EOR provider.
Togo’s minimum wage, known as the SMIG (Salaire Minimum Interprofessionnel Garanti), was raised to 52,500 CFA francs per month effective January 2023, the first increase since 2012. Employees are entitled to statutory annual leave of 2.5 days per month worked, totaling 30 days per year, along with paid sick leave, maternity leave of 14 weeks, and paternity leave. Employers must also register with the CNSS and remit social security contributions on top of gross salary, with employer contributions running around 17.5% and employee contributions around 4%, covering pensions, work injury, maternity, and family allowances; additional smaller levies fund housing and professional training programs.
Foreign hires need a Permis de Travail (work permit) issued by the Ministry of Labour, which is employer- and role-specific and typically takes several weeks to process, plus a long-stay visa obtained before arrival and a carte de séjour (residence card) registered locally within 30 days of arrival. Employers are generally expected to demonstrate that no suitably qualified local candidate is available for the role. Given the relatively shallow formal talent pool outside Lomé, many employers also lean on local recruitment support to identify and vet candidates with the right language, technical, and regulatory experience before extending an offer.
Tips for Recruiting and Retaining Local Talent
- Register with the CNSS before your first employee’s start date; late enrollment can trigger penalties and back-payment of contributions.
- Keep payroll calculations aligned with both the national SMIG and any higher rates set by the Interprofessional Collective Agreement for the employee’s professional category.
- Track annual leave accrual monthly (2.5 days per month) and settle any unused leave on termination, since it cannot be forfeited under Togolese labor law.
- Budget for the full cost of a foreign hire’s immigration process, including the work permit, long-stay visa, and residence card, and start the paperwork well before the intended start date given multi-week processing times.
- Work with a local accountant or law firm (or a partner already established in Togo) to keep pace with OTR filing deadlines, as tax administration processes have not always modernized as fast as company registration.
- Reassess your entity strategy periodically: a branch office must convert to a subsidiary within two years, so companies planning a longer-term presence should factor that deadline into their setup decision from the start.
Why Now is the Right Time to Register a Company in Togo
Togo offers a practical, low-friction entry point into West Africa’s XOF currency zone, backed by OHADA’s harmonized business law framework that gives the SARL structure a fast, standardized registration path, often just a few days to two weeks, and a level of legal predictability that extends across all seventeen OHADA member states. For companies looking at Togo as a base for regional trade, logistics, or services across francophone West Africa, that regional legal consistency is arguably as valuable as anything specific to Togo itself, since a company structured correctly here operates under largely the same rules a business would recognize in neighboring OHADA jurisdictions.
The right structure depends mostly on capital and ambition. A SARL remains the default choice for most foreign-owned subsidiaries given its low capital bar and quick setup, while an SA becomes necessary once a company needs the governance structure to raise outside capital or operate at a scale that XOF 10,000,000 in share capital and a formal board can support. A branch office offers a useful middle path for companies still validating the market, though Togo’s requirement to convert a branch into a full subsidiary within two years means it functions more as a trial period than a permanent structure.
As with other OHADA jurisdictions, getting the entity type right early matters, since converting between structures later, particularly from a branch to an SA, adds time and cost that a clearer initial choice can avoid.
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Frequently Asked Questions
OHADA (Organisation pour l'Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires) is a regional legal framework harmonizing business law across 17 West and Central African member states, including Togo, covering company formation, commercial contracts, and dispute resolution. This means a SARL or SA registered in Togo follows largely the same legal structure and rules as the same entity type would in neighboring OHADA countries, which simplifies regional expansion for companies operating across multiple member states.
No, a SARL does not require a resident director or shareholder, and 100% foreign ownership is generally permitted for most business activities. A branch office is the exception, since it requires a locally authorized director to represent the foreign parent company.
Opening a bank account to deposit share capital is generally required as part of the incorporation process, and this can typically be completed within the same one-to-two-week window as SARL registration if documentation is complete. Delays are more commonly tied to compliance checks on foreign shareholders than to the banking step itself.
Togo's OHADA-derived rules require a branch to convert into a locally incorporated subsidiary (typically a SARL or SA) within two years of registration, or risk being required to cease operations. Companies planning to use a branch structure should treat this conversion as a planned step from the outset rather than something to figure out later.
Registered companies must obtain a tax identification number, register with Togo's tax authorities, and file corporate tax returns annually, with standard corporate tax rates applying to most business activities. Given that specific rates and any sector incentives can change, it's worth confirming current figures with a Togolese tax advisor before finalizing financial projections.
