Key Takeaways: - Demography and Business Environment of Senegal - Procedures relating to Setting up Business - Regulations and Reforms - Business Structures and Tax Incentives - Relevant Numbers

1. CA Jugal Gala
Doing Business in Senegal

2. RESEARCH CREDITS
Vigneesver P

3. Legends Used in the Presentation
CIT Corporate Income Tax
CPI Consumer Price Index
CFAF African Franc
DTAA Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement
EODB Ease of Doing Business
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
GDP Gross Domestic Product
PCP GDP Per Ca Pita GDP
VAT Value Added Tax
XOF West African Franc

4. Presentation Schema
Country Overview Setting up Business Registration with BCE
Taxation System Investment Snippets COVID measures

5. Country Overview

6. Demography and Wealth
• 16.74 Million People (2020)
• 24th in Africa
• 70th in World
• Nominal GDP: $ 23.58 Billion
• PCP GDP- $ 1446 (140th in world)
• 58% urbanized as of 2020
• 50% of urban population is housed in Dakar. Popular cities
include Touba, Thies.
.
• Iron, Zircon, Gas, Gold, Phosphates, and Numerous Oil
• Currency Unit: CFA Franc (XOF); ER: $1= XOF 555
• Annual CPI: 2.6%
Currency
Population
GDP
Urbanisation
Real Wealth

7. Business Environment
Top 5 sectors (by GDP
contribution)
Agriculture- 14.79%
Services- 51.44%
Industry- 24.38%
Employment
Total employed- 4.8
Mn
GDP per person
employed- $ 7701
Ease of Starting a
Business (World
Bank)
Ranked 60
EODB
123rd rank

8. Rankings by World Bank
Out of 190
Countries
The score of Senegal for
starting a business
[91.2] is greater than
the regional average
score of Sub-Saharan
Africa [80.1].

9. Popular Locations for Setting Up Business
THIES
Thies, the third largest City in Senegal is a leading livestock-trading and meat-
packing center. Thiès is best known for its tapestry-making industry.
SAINT LOUIS
Saint-Louis is a commercial and an industrial centre for sugar production. Its
other economic activities are fishing, irrigated alluvial agriculture, pastoral
farming, trading and exportation of peanut skins.
DAKAR
Dakar is the capital city of Senegal. The main industries are chemicals industries
and agrifood, textiles, furniture and construction materials manufacture, cement
production. The Port of Dakar is the main logistics hub for Senegal.
TOUBA
Touba has several marketplaces, the largest of which is the Okass market. Most
of the members are peanut (groundnut) farmers. The town is located in an
agricultural (peanuts and millet) and pastoral (zebu cattle and goats) area of
the Senegalese Sahel

10. Business Opportunities in Senegal
• Senegal has one of the highest mobile user densities on the African continent.
• With the evolution of the telecommunications sector, Senegal has become one of the
most important countries of South-North outsourcing.
• Senegal has an independent supervisory authority for the sector since 2001 named
Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Agency and there are currently three
mobile service providers in the country.16
Communication
Sector
• Over 25% of the businesses in Senegal are financed by 20 banks resident in Senegal.
• It is the second largest banking market of the West African Economic and Monetary
Union after Côte d'Ivoire.
• It is noteworthy that there are 30 organisations in the microfinance sector.
Banking Sector
• Capital formation is swiftly growing up in this sector and initiatives are taken to
develop infrastructure to support the investment.
• Hence, several public and private construction projects are brought to this city to
complete delivered orders to construction companies and their suppliers.
Construction
Industry
• This is the second major source of currency for the country. The sector is currently
getting stabilized and the tourists count is expected to increase gradually.Tourism

11. Setting Up Business

12. Regulatory Agencies
Registrar of Companies and
Liens (RCCM)
Senegal Revenue Authority
Central Bank of West African
States (BCEAO)
Registrar of Companies
Taxation Authority
Monetary and Fiscal
Regulatory Authority

13. Types of Business Structure
Types of
Business
Structure
Company
Limited Liability
Company (SARL)
Public Limited
Company (SA)
Sole
Proprietorship
Economic
Interest Group
Branch or
Representative
Office of a
Foreign Company
SARL is the most common structure. All Companies including Branch or Rep. office of a foreign
Co. have to be compulsorily registered with RCCM. A sole proprietor or Economic Interest Group
need not be registered with RCCM.

14. Incorporation Procedure

15. Registration Procedure
Apply and Register with the Register of Companies and
Liens (RCCM)
Open a bank account in the name of company
Approach a Notary and complete the compliances
relating to incorporation
Register and obtain The National Identification
Number of Companies and Associations (NINEA)
Obtain relevant business license and start the business
Compliances at Notary
• Signing of incorporation related forms and
minutes of the incorporation meeting
• Issue a declaration of conformity
• Deposit the Capital
Steps to Register
1
2
3
4
5
All the procedures relating to setting up
business can be done through Business
Creation Support Bureau (BCE)

16. Time and Cost involved
Particulars SARL SA Branch Rep Office
Setup Time 4 weeks 5 weeks 4 weeks 4 weeks
Opening a bank account 4 weeks 4 weeks 4 weeks 4 weeks
Minimum Paid-up Capital USD 2,000 USD 2,000 USD 1 USD 1
Minimum Shareholders 1 1 1 1
Minimum Directors 1 1 1 1
Business setup Cost USD 15,300 USD 20,600 USD 18,450 USD 17,450
Annual Compliance cost USD 4,700 USD 6,400 USD 5,600 USD 5,600

17. Taxation System

18. Tax Profile
Taxation in
Senegal
Income Tax
Value
Added Tax
Excise Duty
Customs
Duty
• Individual – taxed on slab rate basis (Maximum
rate is 40%); Basic exemption limit – XOF 6,30,000
• Corporate tax – Resident (30%) and Non-resident
(37.5%)
 Methods of collecting income tax include
Corporation Tax, Pay-as-you-earn tax, Withholding
Tax, Advance Tax, etc.
• Taxable goods and services – 18%
(general rate)
• Tourism Activities – 10%
• Financial activities – 17%
• Rate varies depending on
goods and services
produced and imported
• Excise duty rate ranges from
5% to 65%
• Ranges from 0 to 20%
depending on the nature of
goods

19. Tax Structure: Senegal vs Africa
Tax structure refers to the share of each tax in total tax revenues. Following is the comparison
between Senegal and Africa relating to tax structure for 2018 (in %)
The highest share of tax revenues in Senegal in 2018 was contributed by value added taxes
(VAT) (34%). The second-highest share of tax revenues in 2018 was derived from taxes on goods
& services other than VAT (27%).

20. Tax Snippets

21. Tax Incentives
CIT at the rate of 15% for companies
having free export status. Agriculture,
industry, and telecommunications
companies that have an exporting
potential amounting to at least 80% of
their turnover may qualify for the free
export company status.
Companies involved in the mining
and petroleum sector are entitled to
get benefit of exemption from the
CEL, employer tax, VAT [under
conditions], etc.
Companies set up in Special Economic
Zones [SEZ] benefit from preferential
tax rate of 15%
SMEs are entitled to get benefit of
exemption from minimum CIT and
employer tax for three years.

22. Exchange Control Regulations

23. Exchange Control
There is no limit on the repatriation of profits derived by a company in Senegal.
Supporting documentation must be provided for all outbound transfers of currency.
Residents are required to transfer any income in foreign currency to an approved intermediary.
France, China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are the main investors in
Senegal.

24. Cross Border Trade
Senegal's exports amounted in 2019 to CFAF 1985.1 billion against XOF 1,670.0
billion, an increase of 18.9%.
During the period 2015-2019, Senegal's imports globally evolved reaching XOF
4,229.3 billion in 2019 against XOF 3,032.9 billion in 2015, i.e. an average annual
growth rate of 8.9%.

25. Visa and Residence
Permit

26. Obtaining Residence Permit in Senegal
Residency application letter drafted in French language mentioning the phone number
and duly signed by the applicant
3 Passport-size photos and copies of first 5 pages of passport
Birth certificate attested by the consular section
Criminal record from the country of origin
Stamps for value of 15,000 CFA
Work Contract or Letter of employment provided in country of origin
Letter of accommodation from the place of lodging in Senegal
Medical certificate from a local General Practitioner
Copy of Repatriation Bond
Following documents have to be submitted to the foreigners’ police:
A refundable deposit of prescribed amount along with the stamp fee of 200 CFA should be paid to the
Deposits and Consignments Office. A quittance shall be provided to the applicant as proof of deposit.
The quittance should be submitted to the foreigners’ police and a file number will be provided.
A temporary residency permit valid for 6 months shall be granted by the police within 2 to 3 months
from submitting the application. This permit has to be renewed until permanent permit card is issued.

27. VISA exempt countries
Citizens of the following 59 countries can visit Senegal without a visa for up to 90 days.

28. Covid-19 Impact

29. Covid-19 Impact
92.5 % of companies reported they are affected by Covid-19. Overall economic activity has
deteriorated by 25%
Growth has slowed significantly to an estimated 1.3% percent in 2020, with services (such as
tourism and transport) and exports particularly hard hit.
Among the heads of households who had a job before the crisis, 60% kept the same job, 4%
changed jobs and 36% stopped working, of which 30% for reasons related to covid-19.
Heads of household working in services, commerce, public administration, transport and
communications, mining and quarrying are particularly affected by the covid-19 crisis.
Agricultural workers seem to be much more spared than their peers.
85% of households claim to experience a drop in their income, the income that shrinks the most
being income from non-farm family businesses and private transfers to households.

30. COVID measures
• Tax rebates and suspensions granted to companies which undertake to keep their workers in
activity for the duration of the crisis, or to pay more than 70% of the wages of non-active
employees during this period.
• Support for the health sector to the tune of 64.4 billion, to cover all the expenses linked to the
response against COVID-19.
• An envelope of 100 billion specifically dedicated to the direct support of the most affected
sectors of the economy by the crisis, in particular transport, hotel industry and agriculture.
• Reorganization of the national budget by cuts on operating expenses and deferring
investments; which corresponds to a saving of 159 billion.

31. Conclusion
Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed Senegal's economic outlook.
Oil and gas developments have been delayed due to COVID-19 and are expected to contribute to
revenues and exports only around 2025.
However Senegal’s economic growth has been among the highest in Africa between 2014 and
2018, remaining above 6% annually.
Service sector continues to be the largest contributor of GDP
Despite abundant natural resources in iron, zircon, gas, gold, phosphates, and numerous oil
discoveries recently the economy of Senegal is driven by mining, construction, tourism, fishing
and agriculture, which are the main sources of employment in rural areas.

32. Thank You!
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