Following the decree n°2017-567, Cotecna has been mandated by the Ministry in charge of Trade to verify the conformity to applicable standards of all regulated products imported into the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire.

Cotecna’s mandate consists in issuing Certificates of Conformity (COC) for goods complying with applicable requirements. The main objective of this programme is to better protect consumers and importers from substandard, counterfeit and potentially dangerous goods.

During the pilot phase of the implementation of the programme, running from February 15th 2019, the certification process will be mandatory for all goods belonging to those 13 product families referred to in the decree 2016-1152 of December 28th 2016.

In the absence of a valid COC at Customs, concerned products will be refused and the importer exposed to the relevant sanctions as proscribed by the Law.

Côte d’Ivoire Conformity Assessment Process 

To assess the conformity of a shipment, the verification of conformity process will take one of the three following routes, depending on the profile of the exporter. To find out more about the different routes and risk assessment process, download the exporter guide.