Guinea registers businesses in the Registre du Commerce et du Crédit Mobilier (RCCM) — the Trade and Personal Property Credit Register. Guinea is an OHADA member state: it signed the treaty in 1993, ratified it by Loi L/2000/008/AN of 5 May 2000 and the treaty entered into force for it on 21 November 2000, so the OHADA uniform acts apply directly.

The company registry in Guinea

Who keeps the register is settled by Guinean law rather than practice. Loi L/2021/034/AN du 4 juillet 2021, which creates and organises the commercial courts, states in article 8 that management of the RCCM belongs to the juridictions de commerce. Each commercial court has a greffe, and the Tribunal de commerce de Conakry — created by Loi L/2017/033/AN and competent for the special zone of Conakry — confirms on its own site that its registry keeps and manages the RCCM.

The agency most people encounter, the Agence de Promotion des Investissements Privés (APIP), is the front office rather than the register keeper. Its guichet unique delivers three things at once: RCCM registration, the tax identification number, and publication of the legal notice. Its own guidance routes later amendments and strike-offs back to the commercial court. APIP has regional desks in Labé, Kankan, N’Zérékoré and Mamou among others.

The online platform is SYNERGUI, the national business registration system. Three of its pages are public and free: the legal notices archive, which is the only working company search; a trade-name availability check; and the list of notaries. Account creation, filing and payment sit behind a login. One point to note: the platform is now branded to the Guinea Development Board, while APIP’s own site remains live and still calls the platform SYNERGUI; no official text creating that board or transferring APIP’s functions could be found, so APIP should not be described as replaced.

RCCM numbers follow the pattern GN.TCC.year.A or B.sequence — GN for Guinea, TCC for the Conakry commercial court, A for a natural person and B for a legal person, with the sequence restarting each year. A separate formality number is issued alongside.

Individual traders are registered, with an A-series number. The OHADA entreprenant, by contrast, is exempt from registration and merely files a declaration of activity — but in Guinea the status appears unused: the platform lists it as a legal form yet holds no records under it, and no Guinean text fixing the entreprenant’s turnover thresholds or incentives could be located.

Above the local register, article 36 of the AUDCG provides for a Fichier National centralising each register and a Fichier Régional at the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration centralising the national files. Whether a functioning Fichier National exists in Guinea could not be confirmed. Guinea’s contribution to the OHADA regional RCCM portal is, on inspection, a dormant pilot: about 37 records, all entered between February and March 2020, in a numbering format incompatible with the one now in use. The regional portal is therefore not a usable source for Guinean companies.

The RCCM number and the tax number are distinct, issued by different bodies through the same application. The Numéro d’Identification Fiscale is governed by ministerial orders of 2016 and 2019 and does not appear in any public register record, so there is no public cross-lookup between the two.

Legal forms that can be registered in Guinea

The forms actually offered on the national platform are:

  • Entreprise individuelle (EI) — the sole proprietorship. The owner is personally liable without limit. By volume the dominant form.
  • Société à responsabilité limitée (SARL) and its single-member variant the SARLU — the private limited company, members liable to the extent of their contributions. The default vehicle for small and medium business.
  • Société anonyme (SA) and the single-shareholder SA unipersonnelle — the public limited company, shareholders liable to the extent of their contributions. Used by banks, insurers and larger regulated business.
  • Société par actions simplifiée (SAS) and the single-member SASU — the simplified joint-stock company, liability limited to contributions and governance set freely in the statutes. Favoured for joint ventures and investor-structured deals.
  • Groupement d’intérêt économique (GIE) — members are jointly and severally liable without limit for the grouping’s debts. Used for consortia and pooled procurement.
  • Succursale — the branch of a foreign company. No separate legal personality; the foreign parent bears liability. Registration requires the parent’s statutes and register extract legalised in French, the representative’s identity documents and the title or lease of the branch premises.
  • Société civile immobilière (SCI) and société civile professionnelle (SCP) — the property-holding and professional civil companies, whose partners are generally liable beyond their contributions.
  • Bureau de représentation and bureau de liaison — non-trading presences of a foreign parent, which bears liability.

The OHADA acts also make registrable, though they are absent from the platform’s own list, the société en nom collectif (SNC) — a general partnership whose partners are all traders, jointly and severally liable without limit and with no minimum capital — and the société en commandite simple (SCS), with unlimited general partners and limited partners liable to their contributions, likewise with no minimum capital. State companies, mixed-economy companies and public establishments with an economic activity are also registrable.

Two structures are outside the register entirely because they have no legal personality: the société en participation and the société créée de fait. Cooperatives go to a separate Registre des Sociétés Coopératives held by the territorial administration rather than the commercial court, under Loi L/2005/014/AN of 4 July 2005; which Guinean body concretely holds that register today could not be confirmed. Associations and non-profit organisations go to the register of associations kept by the territorial administration.

On capital, Guinea has made a decisive national departure that is frequently reported wrongly. Décret D/2017/114/PRG/SGG du 24 mai 2017 states in article 3 that fixing a minimum share capital for the constitution of a SARL is no longer compulsory, the amount being freely determined by the partners in the statutes. The OHADA default of FCFA 1,000,000 therefore does not apply in Guinea. The same decree allows SARL statutes to be drawn up by private deed prepared by a lawyer or licensed legal counsel rather than by notarial act, and permits paying-up through a bank, a credit institution or a licensed microfinance institution. For the société anonyme the OHADA figures of FCFA 10,000,000, rising to FCFA 100,000,000 with a public offering, are the reference, but no Guinean text fixing or converting the SA minimum into Guinean francs could be found — and since Guinea uses the Guinean franc rather than the CFA franc, that is a live ambiguity rather than a settled figure.

Public and restricted data in the Guinean register

The statutory rule is open. Article 36 of the AUDCG states that the information in the forms lodged at the registry and in the register itself is intended for the information of the public, and article 35 obliges the register to make it available, subject to legal restrictions existing in the member state.

What is recorded for a legal person under article 46 is substantial: corporate name, trading name, activities, legal form, share capital with cash and in-kind contributions, registered office and establishment addresses, duration, the identity of partners with unlimited personal liability, the identity of the managers, directors or partners with general power to bind the company, and the statutory auditors where required. Supporting documents include a certified copy of the statutes and a certified list of officers. Directors are recorded; ordinary shareholders of a SARL, SA or SAS are not — only unlimited-liability partners are named.

Practice is narrower than the statute. The only working free public search is the legal notices archive, which returns the corporate name, legal form, RCCM number and registration date, plus a downloadable notice. Reading those notices: for a legal person the notice gives the name, form, share capital, registered office, corporate object, cash contributions, duration and financial year — but names no director, no shareholder and no beneficial owner. For a sole trader it does name the proprietor. The archive goes back only to June 2025, caps results at thirty per query with no pagination, and appears to carry incorporation notices only. The commercial court’s own site offers no RCCM search at all. So the register is open by statute, but there is no working online register search operated by the register keeper.

On beneficial ownership the finding is clear and negative. No beneficial ownership register exists in Guinea that could be confirmed on any official source. The current anti-money-laundering statute, Loi L/2021/024/AN du 16 juin 2021, defines the beneficial owner and imposes identification and verification duties on financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses, but it contains no chapter on transparency of legal persons and no article creating a central register. The only registers it mentions are those of associations and non-profit organisations.

Annual accounts are among the documents the register receives under article 35 of the AUDCG, and the OHADA product catalogue even sells a certificate of non-filing of annual accounts, which presupposes the obligation. But whether accounts are in fact filed or obtainable in Guinea could not be confirmed — no Guinean official page mentions accounts filing and no search would surface one.

Documents that can be obtained from the register

  • Accusé d’enregistrement — the registration acknowledgement, issued immediately on filing, giving the date and designation of the formality and the registration number. For a company or a GIE it is the moment legal personality arises.
  • Extrait du RCCM — the register extract, showing the entity’s identity, form, activities, seat, capital, officers or unlimited-liability partners, registration number and status. The standard proof-of-existence document for banks, tenders, customs and counterparties.
  • Historique des modifications au RCCM — the chronological history of modifying, complementary and secondary entries and of strike-offs; the document to ask for when tracing changes of officer, seat, capital or activity.
  • Statuts constitutifs et à jour — the founding and current articles of association as filed, used in corporate due diligence, financing and acquisitions.
  • État d’endettement complet ou partiel — the statement of registered security interests over the entity’s movables: pledges, liens, Treasury and customs privileges, retention of title and leasing. This is the crédit mobilier half of the register and the reason it matters to lenders.
  • Certificat de non dépôt de compte annuel — certifying that the entity has not filed its annual accounts.
  • Certificat de non immatriculation and certificat de non déclaration d’activité — the negative certificates confirming that a person is not registered, or has not declared an activity as an entreprenant.
  • Certificat d’opposition and certificat de non opposition — recording the existence or absence of objections, used in sales of a business.
  • Publication légale — the published notice, freely downloadable from the national platform and commonly used as informal evidence of incorporation.

One caution on naming: the Conakry court’s own page refers to obtaining an “extrait K-bis”. The K-bis is a French register document with no OHADA or Guinean statutory basis; treat the phrase as loose wording for the extrait du RCCM rather than as a real Guinean document. A certificate of tax good standing is a tax-administration product, not a register document.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who keeps the trade register in Guinea?

The registry of the commercial court, under article 8 of Loi L/2021/034/AN of 4 July 2021. APIP’s one-stop shop is the filing counter, not the register keeper.

Is there a minimum share capital for a SARL in Guinea?

No. Décret D/2017/114/PRG/SGG of 24 May 2017 abolished it: the amount is freely determined by the partners in the statutes. The OHADA default of FCFA 1,000,000 does not apply in Guinea.

Can Guinean companies be searched online?

Only partly. The national platform publishes a free legal-notices archive going back to June 2025, which gives the name, legal form, RCCM number and date. There is no full online register search.

Are directors and shareholders public in Guinea?

Directors are recorded in the register and appear on an extract. Ordinary shareholders are not recorded at all — only partners with unlimited liability. The published notices name neither.

Does Guinea have a beneficial ownership register?

None is confirmable. The 2021 anti-money-laundering law defines the beneficial owner and imposes duties on financial institutions, but creates no central register.

Are sole traders registered in Guinea?

Yes, in the same register, with an A-series RCCM number. The OHADA entreprenant status, which requires only a declaration, appears unused in Guinea.

What does an RCCM number look like in Guinea?

It follows the pattern GN.TCC.year.A or B.sequence, where A marks a natural person and B a legal person, with the sequence restarting each year.

Sources

Keywords

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