Afrique
Le continent ne subit pas la transformation numérique. Il l'organise.
Stratégies nationales, plateformes d'État, rendez-vous continentaux : le cadre existe. Ce qui manque presque partout, c'est l'exploitation de ce qu'il produit.
Here the lender writes the rules before the buyer does.
On these markets, it is not only local law and the buyer that govern how you bid: it is the procurement rules of international lenders. That is a grammar of its own, which the MENA theatre does not share — and why the two cannot live on one page.
INTERNATIONAL THEATRE · AFRICA
Africa — law before the map
This page does not claim that Altimetria knows everything about fifty-four countries. It shows that we know where the rule lives — and that we stop when the record is missing.
- 01
Articulate the regimes
Every conclusion states its interaction rule instead of assuming a general priority.
- 02
Preserve the source
A value without a dated instrument, a buyer category and a tax basis is not displayed.
- 03
Stop an unsupported conclusion
When the record is missing, the system does not fill the gap. It stops, and says so.
- 04
Turn the unknown into an assigned action
An absence opens a named task: obtain this record, from this authority, before this date.
Turn a complex African project into a traceable decision file: jurisdiction, funding, public procurement, OHADA, data and execution.
The output is an applicability and decision map — not a general opinion about “the African market”.
COMMITMENT
What this page refuses to do
- Presenting Africa as one single legal regime.
- Applying a national threshold without a date, a buyer category, a contract type or a source.
- Reducing a financier rule to a logo or to a universal threshold.
- Using the word “sovereign” without documented location, key control, administrator access, subcontractors, reversibility and cross-border transfers.
- Turning experience into an establishment claim, a client name or a non-publishable quantified result.
METHOD
Four layers, in the order they are checked
This is an assessment sequence, not a universal hierarchy of norms. Depending on country, contract and financing, the corpora may supplement one another, be incorporated, or one may prevail over a conflicting provision where the applicable instrument so provides.
OHADA harmonises part of business law. Never public procurement.
17 member states. Uniform Acts are directly applicable there, under CCJA judicial oversight within the scope of the treaty. Membership is checked state by state — and subject matter by subject matter.
The 17 member states
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Congo
- Comoros
- Gabon
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Equatorial Guinea
- Mali
- Niger
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Senegal
- Chad
- Togo
The four instruments opened by name
AUSCGIE
Uniform Act on Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups
Vehicle, governance, authority, capital operations.
Watch pointLink the chosen form to the country's tax, sector and investment law.
AUS
Uniform Act Organising Securities
Security type, perfection, registration, ranking, enforcement.
Watch pointCheck local registries, formalities and assets. Do not confuse an OHADA security with the security required by the tender.
AUPC
Uniform Act Organising Collective Proceedings for Wiping Off Debts
Signals, prevention, liabilities, continuity scenarios.
Watch pointContract, labour, tax and sector treatment still has to be connected.
AUA
Uniform Act on Arbitration, to be read together with the CCJA Arbitration Rules
Agreement, institution, seat, language, governing law, enforcement.
Watch pointA clause is drafted for the actual contract. The CCJA rules do not apply merely because of geography.
| Layer | MoroccoOutside OHADA | SenegalOHADA member state | Côte d’IvoireOHADA member state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Layer 1Funding and dossierWho funds, under which agreement, plan and standard document?Financing agreement, procurement plan, notice, instructions to bidders.First identify the records that incorporate or supplement the rules. A financier logo is never enough — but where a lender funds the project, its standard bidding document prevails over the national code, and it is answered in its own forms, unaltered. | IN THE FILE Funding cannot be inferred from any map. It is read in the financing agreement, procurement plan, notice and instructions to bidders of the actual project. Next recordObtain the financing agreement and procurement plan before qualifying the method. | IN THE FILE Funding cannot be inferred from any map. It is read in the financing agreement, procurement plan, notice and instructions to bidders of the actual project. Next recordObtain the financing agreement and procurement plan before qualifying the method. | IN THE FILE Funding cannot be inferred from any map. It is read in the financing agreement, procurement plan, notice and instructions to bidders of the actual project. Next recordObtain the financing agreement and procurement plan before qualifying the method. |
| Layer 2National public procurementWhich buyer, category, value, method, control and remedy?Code, decrees, threshold orders, regulator decisions, official portal.National law must still be assessed. A threshold only has meaning with its date, unit, tax treatment and category. | RECORD PRODUCEDSource grade A Decree No. 2-22-431 of 8 March 2023: purchase-order ceiling, publication periods, enhanced-publicity thresholds. The amounts are detailed below, with their tax basis. SourceDecree and implementing orders, consolidated corpus of the Kingdom's General Treasury; national public procurement portal. | TO BE ASSESSED The national corpus exists and is assessed. No amount is displayed here: a threshold without its date, buyer category and tax basis is not an answer, it is a risk. Next recordObtain Senegal's current threshold instrument, its date and the applicable buyer category, then read the solicitation and the review clock. | TO BE ASSESSED A national corpus distinct from Senegal's, even though both states share the OHADA foundation. One is never inferred from the other. Next recordObtain Côte d’Ivoire's current threshold instrument, its date and the applicable buyer category, then read the solicitation and the review clock. |
| Layer 3OHADA business lawWhich corporate form, security, insolvency rule or arbitration clause structures execution?Treaty, Uniform Acts, CCJA arbitration rules, residual national law.OHADA applies by state and by subject matter. It harmonises part of business law, not public procurement. | RECORD PRODUCEDSource grade A Morocco is not among the 17 member states. This layer does not apply here: corporate form, securities and arbitration fall under Moroccan law and the contract. SourceOfficial list of states party to the OHADA treaty. | RECORD PRODUCEDSource grade A Member state. Uniform Acts are directly applicable there, under CCJA oversight within the treaty's scope: companies, securities, insolvency, arbitration. Not public procurement. SourceTreaty and Uniform Acts; official list of member states. | RECORD PRODUCEDSource grade A Member state. Same harmonised foundation as Senegal, same boundary: the Uniform Acts structure execution, not the award of the public contract. SourceTreaty and Uniform Acts; official list of member states. |
| Layer 4Execution constraintsWhich data, FX, tax, customs, local-content, sector, zone and hosting rules apply on top?Authorisations, specifications, hosting contract, sector policy, zone approval.A contractual or sector-specific requirement may supplement the foundation, or be stricter. | RECORD PRODUCEDSource grade B Law No. 09-08 and CNDP procedures: processing and transfers are qualified before hosting or medium is chosen. This control is additional to the specifications and to any sector rules. SourceLaw No. 09-08; published CNDP procedures. Next recordGrade B assumed: the decision applicable to a given flow is not shown here. It depends on the actual processing, destination and processor. | TO BE ASSESSED Data, FX, tax, customs, local content, sector, zone, hosting: each of these corpora is added to the foundation, and may be stricter than it. Next recordList the project's flows, destination, processor and zone approval, then attach each requirement to its dated instrument. | TO BE ASSESSED The same family of constraints as in Senegal, and yet instruments, authorities and approvals of its own. Next recordList the project's flows, destination, processor and zone approval, then attach each requirement to its dated instrument. |
Wide table — scroll horizontally.
The four states of a cell
RECORD PRODUCED
A dated record is cited. Its source grade is displayed alongside.
TO BE ASSESSED
The corpus is identified, the value is not yet. It will only be displayed with its date, buyer category and tax basis. The next record is named.
IN THE FILE
The answer exists only in the actual tender file: agreement, plan, notice, instructions. No map can supply it in advance.
N.F.
Searched, not found in a stable primary source. It is not zero, and it does not mean “does not exist”: it is a named task.
READING
“Threshold” does not mean one single thing
One and the same amount can designate five different objects. Confusing them does not cost a point: it makes you bid under the wrong method, or compute the wrong calendar.
- Family
Procurement-method threshold
ExampleNiger: for central-government works, a floor amount triggers the open tender. The figure is displayed only with its date and instrument.
Risk if conflatedCalling a direct award what is in fact a request for prices or a request for quotations.
- Family
Publication threshold
ExampleGuinea: national or regional radius capped by amount.
Risk if conflatedWrongly inferring foreign-bidder eligibility from the publication radius.
- Family
Control threshold
ExampleCongo: above a threshold, ex-ante control applies to works — without changing the procurement method.
Risk if conflatedConfusing the controller's review with the choice of method.
- Family
Approval threshold
ExampleCongo: the approving authority changes with the amount — President, then Prime Minister, under tiers set by instrument.
Risk if conflatedUnderestimating the time between award and enforceable contract.
- Family
Financier threshold
ExampleRule from the procurement plan of an externally financed project.
Risk if conflatedApplying national law where the financing agreement prevails — or the reverse.
ASSESSMENT
The seven-gate test
Seven questions passed in order. None is skipped, none is guessed — and “country plus amount equals procedure” passes none of them.
- BuyerCentral government, local authority, establishment, public company, project or delegation?
- FinancingNational budget, loan, grant, mixed funding? Does the financing agreement contain a precedence clause?
- SubjectWorks, goods, non-consulting services, consulting firm, individual consultant, delegation?
- Computed valueTax-exclusive or tax-inclusive, aggregated lots, options, renewals, phases — and the anti-splitting rule.
- Method and publicationWhich method does the right threshold trigger, and which publication radius does it impose?
- Control and approvalWho clears the dossier, the evaluation and the contract — and from what amount?
- Review clockTriggering act, working or calendar days, prior filing, suspension, authority, proof of sending.
Two operating speeds — neither one is an abandonment
Track A — grade-A source
Capture the instrument, encode the threshold rule, human validation, then enrich the file.
Track B — documented absence
The opportunity is not deleted. It opens a task: obtain instrument X, from authority Y, before date Z. The institutional reply becomes a versioned piece of evidence.
EVIDENCE
The evidence scale — it does not say whether the value is right, it says what you are allowed to do with it
A
Current primary text, readable date and amount, stable source.
Permitted useAutomated classification permitted, followed by human review.
B
Current text identified, but annex, consolidation or detail missing.
Permitted usePreliminary analysis only — one record must still be obtained before concluding.
C
Conflicting citations, unstable primary source, or operating chain not found.
Permitted useNo decisive computation. The record must be obtained from its authority.
Plus and minus signs do not create false statistical precision: they only flag that a file is close to the adjacent grade.
REFERENCE CASE
Morocco — a mature reference case, not a continental shortcut
The Moroccan market is used here as a documented reference case: public procurement law, the e-procurement portal, data protection, industrial zones and major infrastructure programmes connect in a single file. It is neither a substitute for the seventeen national OHADA jurisdictions, nor implicit proof of capability in every country.
Decree No. 2-22-431 of 8 March 2023
Thresholds, timelines and data — the detailed figures5
- Article 91: a MAD 500,000 incl. tax ceiling for purchase orders — per budget year, per same category of services, and per authorising officer or delegate.
- Open tender: publication on the portal and in two national newspapers; minimum period of 21 days.
- Period extended to 40 days from the enhanced-publicity thresholds — which are not procedure-selection thresholds: MAD 75,550,000 excl. tax for works; MAD 1,964,300 for the State, MAD 5,364,050 for local authorities. A fourth tier appears in our notes: its buyer category remains N.F.
- Management of the public procurement portal lies with the Kingdom's General Treasury.
Data: Law No. 09-08 and CNDP procedures require processing and transfers to be qualified before hosting or medium is chosen. This control is additional to the specifications and to any sector rules.
Contract types encountered on the Moroccan market, cited to show the diversity of interfaces, permits, financing and execution evidence. No programme is named: what matters is the regime, not the project.
A proof-and-decision architecture, not legal advice. A threshold marked N.F. must be confirmed in the applicable national instrument, procurement plan, financing agreement and tender dossier. The texts cited are re-verified every quarter, and at the date of any engaged file.
An admissible bid beats a well-meant one.
Infrastructure, energy, construction: programmes are not scarce, and neither is funding. What is lost is lost on form — a missing document, a misidentified regime, an appeal deadline gone by. That is precisely where we work.