Electronic trade register in Algeria: RCE extract, verification code and updating

The electronic trade register, known by the acronym RCE, is not a register running in parallel with the ordinary trade register. It is the same register, kept by the Centre national du registre de commerce (CNRC), except that the extract issued to the trader now carries a machine-readable electronic code. The wording causes confusion because it suggests a second registration. There is only one.

That code is described by executive decree no. 18-112 of 5 April 2018 as a graphic symbol containing encrypted data relating to the trader. It is printed on the front of the extract, on the right of the upper part, in black on a white background and surrounded by a black frame. Its position and its appearance are standardised precisely so that an inspector knows where to look for it on any extract, whichever office issued it.

The logic of the arrangement is that of a self-contained document. Before the RCE, checking that an extract produced by a supplier or by a bidder for a contract was genuine meant calling the CNRC or trusting the stamp. The RCE code embeds the data in the document itself: whoever reads it compares what the code contains with what is printed on the paper. Any discrepancy immediately reveals a forgery.

The technical choice matters too. The decree adopts a printed graphic symbol rather than a chip or a magnetic strip. The difference is practical: a graphic code is read with the camera of an ordinary telephone, whereas a chip requires a dedicated reader at every checkpoint. That is what made it possible to generalise verification without equipping administrations and banks with specific hardware.

The founding text is executive decree no. 18-112 of 18 Rajab 1439, corresponding to 5 April 2018, setting the model of the trade register extract issued in electronic format. It was published in Official Gazette no. 21 of 11 April 2018 and appears in the regulatory compendium of the ministry of trade.

That decree did not switch the country over from one day to the next. It opened a transition period during which extracts without the electronic code remained valid, subject to the traders concerned applying to the competent CNRC office to have their extract modified. That period turned out to be longer than expected and was extended three times.

The extension texts, listed in the same regulatory compendium, are executive decree no. 19-251 of 16 September 2019, executive decree no. 20-154 of 8 June 2020 published in Official Gazette no. 35 of 14 June 2020, and executive decree no. 22-50 of 23 January 2022 published in Official Gazette no. 7 of 25 January 2022. The last of these set the compliance cut-off at 30 June 2022.

That cut-off has passed. In 2026 the question is therefore no longer whether to convert your extract, but simply to note that every extract issued today by the CNRC carries the RCE code. An operator still producing an extract without the electronic code is producing a document whose period of tolerance has expired, and is exposed to the penalties of law no. 04-08 of 14 August 2004 on the conditions for carrying on commercial activities.

One last text changed the landscape in 2026, not in the format of the extract but in the place where it can be obtained. Executive decree no. 26-155 of 14 April 2026, published in Official Gazette no. 31 of 28 April 2026, inserted an article 7 bis into decree 92-69 on the status of CNRC officers. The representatives of the centre attached to the single investment windows (guichets uniques de l'investissement) are now empowered to draw up, sign and issue all the instruments falling within the officer's prerogatives. An extract obtained at the single window has the same value as one issued at an office.

The point directors take in least is the first row of this table: the extract in electronic format is still a paper document. Decree 18-112 sets the model of the extract issued in electronic format, which covers the way it is produced and the code it carries, not the disappearance of the medium. You still receive a sheet of paper, it simply carries a code that can be scanned.

The second row is the one with the greatest effect day to day. Verification has moved from an administrative step to a three-second gesture. A bank opening a business account, a contracting authority reviewing a bid, a supplier granting credit can all check for themselves that the code and the printed text agree.

The principle is comparison. The code contains, in encrypted form, data relating to the trader. Reading the code returns that data, which is then set against what is printed on the extract produced. If the registration number, the corporate name or the wilaya do not match the content of the code, the document has been altered.

The CNRC has made available an application for reading the electronic trade register, intended to make this check simple for users. Reading is done from a device with an image capture function, which covers virtually every telephone in circulation.

The exact scope of this verification has to be understood, and above all its limits. Reading the code establishes that the extract is genuine and that it has not been modified since it was issued. It does not establish that the information it contains is still up to date. A perfectly genuine extract may name a manager who has left office or a registered office the company has since vacated. Authenticity and currency are two separate questions.

That is why a serious check on a counterparty combines two steps: reading the code, which rules out a false document, and asking for a recent extract, which rules out out-of-date information. The official CNRC portal, sidjilcom.cnrc.dz, also allows searches in the traders file and access to the online services of the register.

The applicable fees are governed by the ministerial order (arrêté) of 31 October 2016 setting the fees of the trade register and of legal notices, published in Official Gazette no. 01 of 4 January 2017. The CNRC publishes on sidjilcom.cnrc.dz the schedule actually applied at its counters, which includes the ancillary components of the cost. The exact amounts per type of formality are detailed on our modification and extract pages.

The electronic format made verification easy. Law no. 26-12 of 8 June 2026, published in Official Gazette no. 44 of 18 June 2026, made inaccuracy costly. The two developments answer each other, and that is what changes the picture for directors.

Its article 2 inserts an article 4 bis into law 04-08: every trader, whether a natural person or a legal person, is required to start the procedures to modify the trade register extract within one month at most, from the date of the changes affecting the particulars of the extract or the status of the legal person.

The penalty is set out in article 37 as rewritten by article 6 of the same law. The fine runs from 10,000 DA to 500,000 DA for a trader who is a natural person and from 300,000 DA to 700,000 DA for a legal person. A graduated mechanism follows: formal notice to regularise within three months from notification, then administrative closure of the premises by the wali, then removal from the trade register ordered by the court if the situation is still not regularised within the three months following the closure.

Comparing the two sets of rules is instructive. A genuine but out-of-date extract reads perfectly well through the RCE code: the reader sees a valid document. What now exposes the trader is no longer the risk that a third party spots the gap, it is the deadline itself. The one-month clock runs from the change, not from the moment someone notices it.

Our Official Gazette digest devoted to this text sets out the whole scheme, including the tightening of the conditions for acquiring the status of trader (/journal-officiel/loi-26-12-modification-registre-commerce-delai-un-mois).

Two situations bring our clients to this subject. The first is the director who discovers, often when opening an account or bidding for a contract, that the extract no longer reflects the reality of the company. Since law 26-12 that discovery comes with a deadline attached, and it is better to deal with the regularisation immediately than to let the clock run.

The second is the company that has to check its counterparties: suppliers, subcontractors, partners. Reading an RCE code calls for no particular skill, but interpreting what the extract says and does not say does. An active extract settles nothing about the tax position, the filing of the annual accounts or the beneficial owner declaration.

UpGrowth Connect handles trade register formalities in both directions: assembling and filing modifying entry applications for your own company, and documentary checks on a counterparty before you commit. The initial diagnostic is free and takes thirty minutes.

Our service commitments apply: a firm quote within 24 hours of the diagnostic, no hidden fees, and a WhatsApp reply within 4 working hours.