Senegal registered 23,804 new businesses and other economic units in the third quarter of 2026, up 17.8% from a year earlier and 7.3% from the previous quarter, statistics agency ANSD said on October 29. Company registrations rose 36.4% to 3,893, while sole proprietorships, which made up 71.6% of the total, climbed 27.2% to 17,039, ANSD said.
Analysis: The increase partly reflects a weak third quarter in 2025: registrations were just 0.4% above the same period in 2024. Excluding landowners, whose registrations fell 74.7%, the total rose 28.7%, by our calculation. Growth was concentrated in small-scale commerce, not manufacturing. Retail and other commerce accounted for 70.5% of new sole proprietorships, against 1.5% for textiles and 1.1% for food processing. Dakar represented 51.7% of registrations. These figures measure newly issued identification numbers, not businesses operating or creating jobs. ANSD is due to publish its next bulletin on February 7, 2027.
Source: ANSD, ANSD, Bulletin trimestriel sur les nouvelles immatriculations au NINEA (BTNIN), T3 2026, posted October 29, 2026, Q3 2026 and Q3 2024