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Employer of Record in Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire): hiring staff in Abidjan without setting up a local entity

Published on 29 September 2026

An Italian contractor wins a maintenance contract on an industrial site in Vridi. A Canadian consultancy opens an eighteen-month assignment with a mining project in the north of the country. A French SME wants a sales team in Abidjan before deciding on a local subsidiary. The question is the same in all three cases: how do you employ people in Côte d'Ivoire without setting up a company there?

The answer has an English name, Employer of Record, and an Ivorian one, portage salarial. This article explains how it works, what the provider takes care of, what Ivorian law requires, what it costs, and when a subsidiary becomes the better option.

What an Employer of Record is

An Employer of Record (EOR) is a company established in the country that legally employs your staff on your behalf. It signs their employment contracts, pays salaries, declares and pays social contributions, withholds payroll tax and handles terminations. You manage the work day to day and pay a service invoice.

In Côte d'Ivoire this service is called portage salarial. The relationship has three parties: the portage company, the employee and the client company. You contract with the portage company, never directly with the employee. Our French article on portage salarial in Côte d'Ivoire describes its advantages and limits; our portage salarial page presents the service for companies.

What the EOR takes care of, text by text

Ivorian labour law is set out in law no. 2015-532 of 20 July 2015 (the Labour Code) and its decrees. These are the obligations the portage company assumes on your behalf.

What the EOR does not do: direct the work. You set objectives, hours and deliverables within the service contract. The employee works for you, with your tools, as an employee of the portage company.

What Ivorian law requires of the set-up

An authorised portage company

The Labour Code does not define portage salarial. It does state that lending staff for profit is only allowed within the framework of temporary work (article 11.5), which is carried out by a company authorised by the ministry in charge of labour (decree no. 96-194, article 7). Check that your provider holds this authorisation, is registered in the trade register, and can produce up-to-date CNPS and tax compliance certificates.

Priority to national employment for expatriates

If you want to bring in a foreign employee, article 11.1 of the Labour Code requires the vacancy to be declared to the public placement body and published in a national daily newspaper; if no national has met the profile one month after the first publication, the employer may recruit any other candidate. The EOR runs this procedure and can assist with residence formalities.

Local content sectors

In oil, gas and mining, service providers are subject to approval and to priority-employment obligations for Ivorian nationals. Our French article on local content in oil and mining details these rules; they weigh on the choice of provider.

What it costs and how it is invoiced

The monthly invoice adds up gross salary, employer contributions, provisions linked to the contract (leave, bonus, end of contract) and the provider's management fee. On the CNPS, FDFP and CMU perimeter, employer contributions represent roughly 11% to 19% of gross salary depending on the pay level; employer payroll taxes come on top, at different rates for local and expatriate staff.

Invoicing is in CFA francs. The West African CFA franc has a fixed parity with the euro, 1 euro for 655.957 FCFA, with a convertibility guarantee and, within the Franc Zone, free transfers in principle for current transactions, according to the French Treasury. For a eurozone company the currency risk is nil; for others it is limited to the euro against their own currency.

Ask for a quote that shows every line. A global price with no perimeter does not tell you what is actually declared.

Steps and timeline

  1. Qualifying the need: positions, profiles, duration, place of work, budget.
  2. Profiles: you bring your candidates, or the provider sources them for you, as in staff provision (French).
  3. Service contract between your company and the provider: scope, price, duration, responsibilities, confidentiality, ownership of deliverables.
  4. Employment contracts for the employees, CNPS registration on day one, file opening.
  5. Start, then monthly invoicing and reporting.

The timeline depends mostly on the availability of profiles. Once candidates are selected, contracting takes a few days, since the provider already holds its registration and authorisations.

EOR or subsidiary: when to switch

Portage gives you an employment and invoicing framework. It does not give you a commercial existence in Côte d'Ivoire: invoicing Ivorian clients in your own name, answering tenders that require a local structure, or qualifying as an Ivorian-law company under the local content rules all require a registered company. The investment promotion centre (CEPICI) hosts the one-stop shop for company formation.

The signals that point towards a subsidiary: Ivorian clients to invoice locally, a team that grows and stabilises, a local content sector, a multi-year project. Until that point, the EOR lets you test the market, hire quickly and leave without a liquidation.

Many companies combine both: portage for the first hires, then a subsidiary, with the employees transferred to the new entity. That transfer is prepared from the service contract onwards. If you set up the subsidiary but do not want an administrative team, our payroll and HR outsourcing page takes over. Staff provision for short assignments is described on our staff provision page.

Cet article existe aussi en français : Employer of Record en Côte d'Ivoire.

Questions fréquentes

Can a foreign company employ staff in Côte d'Ivoire without a subsidiary?
Yes, through portage salarial, the Ivorian equivalent of an Employer of Record. An authorised portage company employs the staff and invoices you for a service.
Who is the legal employer of the employee?
The portage company. It signs the employment contract, pays the salary, declares and pays CNPS contributions and withholds the tax on salaries.
What does an employee cost through an EOR in Côte d'Ivoire?
Gross salary, employer contributions of roughly 11% to 19% of gross on the CNPS, FDFP and CMU perimeter, employer payroll taxes, contract provisions and the provider's management fee. Ask for a line-by-line quote.
Can we be invoiced in euros?
Invoicing is in CFA francs, at a fixed parity of 655.957 FCFA per euro. The currency risk is nil for a eurozone company.
How long can an employee stay under portage?
For the duration of the assignment agreed in the service contract. When a permanent need settles in, setting up a subsidiary and transferring the employees becomes the better option.
Can we hire an expatriate through the EOR?
Yes, after the procedure of article 11.1 of the Labour Code: the vacancy is declared to the public placement body and published in a national daily. If no national matches the profile one month after the first publication, recruitment is open.

Sources

Legal texts as in force on the publication date. This article informs employers; it does not replace legal advice on your own situation.

Need staff or HR support in Côte d'Ivoire?

AT225 qualifies your request and gets back to you quickly. You then follow your staff through the client portal: contracts, time records, payslips, CNPS filings and contribution certificates. For companies and employers only.

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