Registering the company is the easy part. Getting the dividend out is the plan.

Rwanda, through the RDB, in six hours to three days. Benin and Togo file in three to ten days under OHADA law, and South Africa in five to ten business days.

In most of them, on a power of attorney - the table shows which. Algeria, Angola and Mauritania are mostly remote but not always; Libya expects a presence, and Sudan is case-by-case only.

In most of these countries, yes - Angola and Egypt among them. Algeria keeps the 51/49 rule in strategic sectors and Libya caps foreign ownership at 49% in the standard joint-venture route. Ownership and licensing are separate questions: an activity can be open to full foreign ownership and still be licensed narrowly.

By registering the money on the way in and following the central bank's route on the way out. Nigeria records incoming capital on a Certificate of Capital Importation, Angola registers investment with AIPEX, Morocco runs the capital account through the Office des Changes. The approval is procedural, but it is not automatic and it is not quick.

Botswana has had none since 1999, Zambia's kwacha is convertible, and Djibouti has none with a franc pegged to the dollar since 1949. South Africa's rand is exchange-controlled, Algeria's dinar is not freely convertible, and Zimbabwe's controls are real. None of that is a reason to stay away - it is a reason to know it before you commit capital.

Partly by choosing where you invoice. The CFA franc across the OHADA countries and Cape Verde's escudo are tied to the euro, Namibia's dollar and Lesotho's loti sit one-to-one with the rand, and Djibouti's franc holds to the dollar. Elsewhere it is a real cost: the kwanza devalues in waves, the Egyptian pound in chapters, the ariary persistently. Zimbabwe trades in US dollars in practice.

It depends on the country and often on the sector. Zambia requires half the board to reside there; Tanzania keeps local-participation clauses in mining and a few licensed trades. Where the requirement is genuine we structure it properly, with a real agreement - a nominee arrangement laid over a real ownership rule is a dispute waiting to happen.

Longer than the company, in every case we have handled. Mining, telecoms, energy and financial services are licensed by a ministry or a regulator above the registry - Sierra Leone taxes mining per licence, and South Africa's FSCA is the gateway to selling financial services to African clients. Start it in parallel with the incorporation.

Often, and for concrete reasons: 46 treaties, an effective 3% on qualifying GBC income, 0% for an Authorised Company, and lenders and co-investors who already know the documents. It is the layer above the operating company, not a substitute - the trade still has to happen where your customers are.

Sudan: only narrowly, and for most commercial plans our advice is to wait. The country is in a civil war, registries function by geography, and the Port Sudan corridor is where they do - we act for aid-sector contractors, operators in functioning corridors and diaspora maintaining existing entities, with sanctions screening built into the file. Libya: yes, through a 49% joint venture or a branch, in six to twelve weeks, for operators who know what they are taking on.