The 2024 OHADA debt recovery reform: shorter deadlines, faster enforcement
The revised Uniform Act came into force on 16 February 2024. Every significant deadline in the injunction to pay procedure is now shorter than it was, and a debtor working from the old deadlines loses the right to be heard.
The revised OHADA Uniform Act on Simplified Recovery Procedures and Enforcement Measures was adopted at Kinshasa on 17 October 2023, published in the OHADA Official Gazette on 15 November 2023, and came into force on 16 February 2024. It replaced a text that had been in force since 1998.
The reform is not a matter of detail. Every significant deadline in the injunction to pay procedure has been shortened, and a party working from the old deadlines will miss them.
What changed
| Step | Before | Since 16 February 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Ruling on an application for an injunction to pay | No fixed deadline | Three days |
| Opposition by the debtor | Fifteen days | Ten days |
| Appeal | Thirty days | Fifteen days |
| Reasons for a rejection | Not required | Required |
| Conciliation | Before the trial court | Designated judge: fifteen days to convene, two months to rule |
| Service of documents | Physical service | Electronic service permitted |
The revision also created a new action for annulment of the notice, and narrowed immunity from enforcement so that it now covers public-law entities rather than the wider category previously protected. For a creditor with a judgment against a State-owned commercial entity, that narrowing matters.
What it means for a creditor
A creditor who prepares the file properly now obtains an enforceable order materially faster than before. The three-day deadline for the court to rule places the emphasis on the application itself: the debt must be certain, liquidated and due, and the supporting documents must establish it on their face. An application that is incomplete is now rejected with reasons, which is useful, but the time is lost.
What it means for a debtor
A debtor served with an order to pay has ten days to oppose it, not fifteen. This is the single most consequential change, and it catches people off guard. A debtor who consults an attorney on the fourteenth day, believing the old deadline still applies, has already lost the right to be heard on the merits and is left with the more limited remedies available after the order becomes enforceable.
Enforcement measures
Once an enforceable order is obtained, the Uniform Act provides for attachment of receivables and bank accounts, attachment and sale of movable assets, attachment of shares and securities, and enforcement against real property. Prejudgment attachment is available where recovery appears to be at risk, and converts into enforcement once the order is obtained.
Across OHADA
The same Uniform Act applies in all seventeen member States. A Cameroonian creditor pursuing a debtor in Gabon, Chad or Cote d'Ivoire works under the same procedural rules, which is the practical advantage of the harmonized system.
Related practice areas
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