Signed on October 17, 1993 in Port-Louis (Mauritius) and revised in Quebec City (Canada) on October 17, 2008, the Treaty that established it has profoundly changed the face of trade between the so-called "OHADA zone" and the rest of the world. This ambitious organization owes a great deal to the vision of a few men of good will, and in particular Paul BAYZELON, who had the brilliant intuition to convince people of the need to bring this project to fruition.

Now in its thirties, with a new permanent secretary in Professor Mayatta Ndiaye MBAYE, OHADA is undeniably in its prime.

This strength can be measured in three ways.

First, geographical. Today, 17 states with over 275 million inhabitants are members of OHADA: Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad, Congo, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Others, such as Madagascar, appear to be considering membership.

Second, normative. OHADA's exceptional track record is practically equivalent to a codification of African business law’s substantive rules throughout the zone. Contrary to what the term "harmonization" suggests, this is the more ambitious path to true unification, through "the elaboration and adoption of simple, modern common rules adapted to the situation of their economies" (art. 1 of the Treaty of Port-Louis). Entire areas of business law have thus been the subject of Uniform Acts adopted by the OHADA Council of Ministers, directly applicable in all member states and taking precedence over national provisions. They are listed in order of initial adoption, with the date of revision: securities (1997, revised in 2010), commercial companies and EIGs (1997, revised in 2014), general commercial law (1997, revised in 2010), debt collection and enforcement (1998, revised in October 2023), collective proceedings (1998, revised in 2015), arbitration (1999, revised in 2017), company accounting (2000, revised in 2017), road transport (2003), cooperative societies (2010), mediation (2017), accounting by non-profit entities (2022). Comprising 13 judges, the Abidjan Common Court of Justice and Arbitration (CCJA) has been a powerful factor in unifying OHADA law. This wealth of substantive law has directly strengthened the academic influence of the zone: there are countless high-quality works, publications, monographs and theses on the subject.

And finally, economic. As the father of OHADA, Kéba M'Baye used to say: "The Preamble to the Treaty says no different, its signatories being rightly "convinced that the achievement of these objectives presupposes the establishment in their States of a harmonized, simple, modern and adapted Business Law, in order to facilitate the activities of enterprises; aware that it is essential that this law be diligently applied, under conditions that guarantee the legal security of economic activities, in order to promote their growth and encourage investment". OHADA law has largely fulfilled its role of supporting and securing investment. It is safe to assume that it has helped the economies of its member states to gain valuable growth points.

This thirtieth anniversary is an opportunity to measure the benefits of the codification of business law: it has created a law that is efficient, secure, accessible and inexpensive. Isn't it time for the European Union to follow the OHADA example and draw on the codification resources shared by 24 of the 27 EU member states? Association Henri Capitant's project for a European Business Code proposes, on this model, to achieve the construction of business law in the EU.