Summary

Senegal is a party to the OHADA Treaty (Organisation pour l’Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires) and arbitration is therefore governed by the Uniform Act on Arbitration. The act was signed on March 11, 1999 and entered into force 90 days later. The Uniform Act supersedes the existing national laws on arbitration. The act is supplemented by the New Civil Procedure Code, which also regulates the courts’ capacity to provide assistance to arbitral proceedings. The principal arbitral institution under OHADA is the Common Court for Justice and Arbitration (CCJA) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Senegal has also adopted various laws and provisions to develop arbitration in line with the OHADA Uniform Act. Senegal’s main arbitral institution is the Center for Arbitration, Mediation, and Conciliation (CAMC) at the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture of Dakar (CCIAD), established in 1998. Senegal has ratified the 1958 New York Convention and the ICSID Convention. On average, it takes around 11 weeks to enforce an arbitration award rendered in Senegal, from filing an application to a writ of execution attaching assets (assuming there is no appeal), and 11 weeks for a foreign award.