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At 27, Rokhaya Diop is most definitely a “young businesswoman.” For the past five years, she has run a hairdressing salon in the Liberté neighborhood, a modern section of Dakar, and her company’s name, “Complexe Rafetna”, says it all: in the national language, Wolof, it means “It’s pretty”.

In addition to the hair salon, Diop, like thousands of Senegalese women, also engages in trade. Her trips to Morocco, Mauritania and Mali give her an opportunity to buy cosmetics or fabrics that she re-sells to her salon customers, “some of whom are the wives of government ministers or prominent people,” she says with a certain amount of pride. Just the sort of undertaking that could have been profitable if only she’d had her paperwork in order. Again, like thousands of Senegalese women involved in trade, hairdressing, dressmaking and other endeavors, Diop had no documents legitimizing her professional activities.

She was well aware, however, of the need to operate within the law.

“It’s true,” said Diop. “I was unable to make big profits because every time I returned to Dakar after one of my trips, I had trouble at the airport getting our merchandise into Senegal. When you don’t have official documents such as the Import/Export card, the customs people impose a surtax. It costs a lot to be in the informal sector.”

So why hadn’t she formally registered her hair salon? Diop knew the procedure for obtaining papers, but refused to do what was required.

“It’s too much trouble, and you lose too much money getting those papers,” she explained. “If a person is unfamiliar with the administrative circuit or doesn’t have time to do it themselves, they have to pay an intermediary up to CFAF 200,000 (US$ 400) to get the papers.”

“Plus,” adds Diop “It not only takes time, but you often lose your money, too, and end up with no papers. There are a lot of scams.”

It was to avoid this administrative red tape, Diop says, that she remained in the informal sector, unable to seek assistance from banks and limiting herself to one employee and two apprentices.

“My family helped me to open the salon in the family home, and I was able to get a little money through the micro-credit network, but not enough for what I want to do,” asserts Diop.

A Simple Idea

Diop decided to register her business because she had plans to expand and diversify her hairdressing salon. She was encouraged by the speed with which one of her brothers, who lives in Switzerland, was able to do all the paperwork for his business. During a recent visit home, it took him only two days to register his new company. Diop couldn’t get over the idea of needing only 48 hours to register one’s new company.

On her brother’s advice, she turned to the business creation bureau (BCE) set up at the Center for Facilitation of Administrative Procedures (CFPA) within the national investment promotion agency (APIX).

The BCE, discovered by Diop as she tried to register her business, represents the implementation of a simple idea launched after consultations with Senegal’s private sector and some partners,including the World Bank: a single window that gathers together in one office all the institutions involved in issuing the documents required to set up a business in Senegal, people who used to be scattered throughout the labyrinthine administration.

The idea involved the side-by-side collaboration of civil servants, who for nearly 40 years had worked in sequence without ever seeing each other in person. This former set-up contributed to heavy delays in the issuance of business documents. Today, applicants simply proceed from one desk to the next to complete all of the necessary formalities. This important reform, implemented with the support of the World Bank, continues to equip the BCE with information systems and the knowledge to design and implement a communication strategy targeting the private sector.

“It goes very quickly,” Diop said. “And I think it could go even faster if the BCE sold the fiscal stamps on site. I had to go to the Post Office for those.”

She adds in passing that the existence of the BCE needs to be better publicized to the general public, and especially to women.

Diop’s thoughts may be put into practice. Senegal has decided to assign top priority to the creation of a world-class business environment, and plans to do this through its Accelerated Growth Strategy (AGS), which is supported by the World Bank under the latter’s 2007-2010 Country Assistance Strategy.

A Very Lively Sector

Diop’s Complexe Rafetna is one of hundreds of companies that have exited the so-called “informal” sector after years of operation. They join the 417 companies newly created by the BCE after less than 100 days of its official launch on July 19, 2007.

These companies, of varying legal formats ranging from large limited liability companies to small sole proprietorships, are in all sectors: agrifood (30), public works (36), general retailing (115), energy and mining (14), studies/consulting (19), real estate (27), industry (24), Information and communication technology (48), restaurants (5), tourism/hospitality (12), transportation (16), health (03)and about 60 companies inmiscellaneous other activities and services.

Diop no longer has to pay any surtax on her imports upon arriving at the Dakar airport. She can now show the customs agents her business registration card, her national business ID number, and all those other papers with mysterious acronyms that the BCE is making commonplace for thousands of operators.

As of July 19, 2007, it now takes only 48 hours -- a timetable competitive with other countries in the world -- and 70.000 Fcfa (about USD150)to become, like Rokhaya Diop, the proprietor of a company in complete compliance with Senegalese laws and regulations and therefore authorized to take advantage of all the opportunities available to legally established entities.

Diop says her “greatest hope is that this formalization might enable me to locate partners willing to help me invest CFAF 15 million (about US$ 30,000) so that I can market the major cosmetic brands in Senegal.”

By Mademba Ndiaye, Communications Officer, World Bank Country Office, Dakar, World Bank.org