Market entry
European and American companies that need a local entity to sign contracts, bid on tenders and receive payment — operational in weeks, with the bank account opened in person by our team.
Volta Corporate registers Togolese companies for international and regional clients, then keeps them in good standing: registered office, corporate bank account, annual filings. Fixed fees, published below. Our staff walk your dossier into the registry, the tax office and the bank.
Request a consultation View the fee scheduleLomé is where the region keeps its head offices. Ecobank Transnational, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development are all headquartered here, beside the deepest container port on the Gulf of Guinea and the trade corridor serving Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.
For a foreign shareholder the advantages are structural: a currency fixed to the euro, a company law shared with sixteen other states, a registry that processes filings in days, and none of the list entries that complicate banking from better-known offshore centres.
Our clients use the jurisdiction for what it does: operating, holding and contracting across West Africa.
The CFA franc is pegged to the euro at 655.957 with a convertibility guarantee. Regional revenue and working capital carry no African currency risk.
OHADA uniform law gives a Togolese SARL recognized legal standing and enforceable contracts in 17 states, with a common court of arbitration in Abidjan.
No nationality or residency requirement for shareholders or the manager, under OHADA uniform law.
Togo appears on no FATF or EU list. Banks and counterparties treat Togolese entities as what they are: ordinary operating companies.
European and American companies that need a local entity to sign contracts, bid on tenders and receive payment — operational in weeks, with the bank account opened in person by our team.
Nigerian and Ghanaian firms operating outside OHADA use a Togolese company for legal standing, francophone banking and tender eligibility across the zone.
Family businesses and groups with operations in several WAEMU countries consolidate under a Togolese holding — succession-ready, with the participation regime applied correctly.
Diaspora and regional investors hold Lomé real estate through a Togolese SARL: registered title, rent collection in absence, orderly inheritance.
A twenty-minute call and a short form: shareholders, manager, intended activity. We advise on SARL or SAS and draft the statuts.
Notarization, commercial registry (RCCM), tax identification (NIF) and social security (CNSS) — filed in person by our staff. Standard turnaround is five business days; 48-hour service available.
Certified documents delivered digitally and by courier. On Complete engagements, we open the corporate account with you at Ecobank or Orabank — a deliverable, not assistance.
The Port of Lomé is the deepest on the Gulf of Guinea, and the gateway for three landlocked economies.
Trade with Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali clears through Lomé. Clients on the Abidjan–Lagos corridor use Togolese entities for customs, invoicing and banking at the point where the goods actually move.
Formation agents in this market quote by private message. Our fees are on the page, in dollars, and they do not move after the first call.
Consolidation of a multi-country West African group under a Togolese holding: the 95% participation exemption on ECOWAS subsidiary dividends, exemption of gains on qualifying disposals, and intercompany agreements reviewed by our Lomé legal partner.
Renewal from the second year: $449 per year for registered office and annual compliance, on a maintained filing calendar. Bookkeeping from $149 per month.
Most operators in this market either hide the rules or oversell them. These are the provisions as they stand, stated plainly.
| Corporate income tax | 27% on profits of business carried on in Togo. Taxation is territorial: profits of a genuine foreign establishment of a Togolese company are not taxed again in Togo. |
| Participation regime | Dividends received from subsidiaries seated in Togo or any ECOWAS state are 95% exempt where the parent holds at least 10%: an effective rate of about 1.35%. |
| Disposals | Qualifying holding companies pay no corporate tax on gains from selling participations, where at least 60% of the portfolio is WAEMU companies. |
| Within WAEMU | The WAEMU tax convention caps dividend withholding at 10%; capital moves across the zone without exchange approval — one central bank, one currency. |
| What we do not sell | Zero-tax paper companies. A Togolese entity that "legally pays nothing anywhere" does not exist, and a client who buys that claim carries the audit risk personally. Every engagement includes documentation your home-country adviser can review before you commit. |
General information as at July 2026, not tax or legal advice. Provisions cited: CGI Togo arts. 93, 95, 107; Règlement n°08/2008/CM/UEMOA.
For the formation itself, no — filings are handled locally and shareholders can be anywhere. Banks set their own account-opening requirements: some accept a notarized power of attorney, some require one visit by the manager. We confirm the current position of each bank before you commit, and tell you which applies to your case.
No. OHADA law imposes no nationality or residency condition on shareholders or the manager. Foreign-owned companies are routine.
The registry processes filings in about 48 hours. End to end — statuts drafting, notarization, registration — plan on five business days. A 48-hour expedited service is available.
A Togolese company has annual obligations: a tax return, a CNSS declaration and a maintained registered office. The $449 renewal covers all three on a filing calendar we maintain — which is the point of retaining a registered agent.
No, deliberately. A Togolese SARL is an ordinary operating company in a jurisdiction on no FATF or EU list. It is built for doing business in West Africa, holding regional assets and consolidating regional groups — with favourable, defensible tax treatment.
Tell us what the company is for. We reply within one business day with a recommendation and a fixed fee — or a straight answer that Togo is not the right jurisdiction for your case.