Frequently asked questions

DI-Africa is a pan-African HR services group, your HR & workforce partner in Africa. It supports companies employing people in Africa with six services: Employer of Record (EOR), recruitment and sourcing, payroll and compliance, immigration and work permits, international mobility, and health insurance. The group operates in 14 countries and serves more than 500 clients.

DI-Africa operates in 14 African countries (October 2026). The group has subsidiaries in Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique and Namibia, and works from these subsidiaries in neighbouring countries. Country guides are published for Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Tunisia.

The group brings together 9 entities: the parent company DI-A SA, in Switzerland; the regional holding DI-Africa (Mauritius) Ltd, in Mauritius; and seven operating subsidiaries: DI-Africa Congo SA, DI-Africa Côte d'Ivoire SA, DI-Africa Gabon SA, DI-Africa Madagascar SA, DI-Africa Maroc SAS, DI-Africa Mozambique SA and DI-Africa Human Resources (Pty) Ltd in Namibia. Each subsidiary employs and manages its staff locally.

Alongside www.di-africa.com, the group runs dedicated websites: DI-Africa Talents (job openings and CV upload), DI-Africa Recruiters (employers who are hiring), DI-Africa Global Mobility (immigration and mobility, country guides), Mining in Africa (mining jobs), Digital Factory (technology and tech talent), as well as the DI-Africa Congo Health Hub, the Client Extranet and Lufito Coworking, in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

An Employer of Record (EOR) is a company that becomes the legal employer of your staff in a country where you have no entity. It signs the employment contract under local law, pays salaries, declares and pays social contributions and payroll taxes, and takes on the employer's obligations. You keep day-to-day direction of the work. In French-speaking Africa, the terms portage salarial or staff secondment (mise à disposition) are also used.

You identify the employee, or DI-Africa recruits them. DI-Africa's subsidiary in the country hires them under a local-law contract, runs payroll, contributions, filings and permits, and sends you a monthly report with payslips and supporting documents. You direct their day-to-day work, without setting up an entity.

As standard, 14 working days from contract to first payroll: contract drafted and signed between D+1 and D+3, social security registration between D+7 and D+12, first payroll confirmed between D+12 and D+14. An EOR Express service is available from D+5 in countries where DI-Africa has an established entity. For an expatriate, the work permit is processed in parallel: 4 to 14 weeks depending on the country.

No. With EOR, DI-Africa is the legal employer: no capital to tie up, no local accounting, no incorporation delays (often 6 to 18 months for a subsidiary). The arrangement follows your headcount up or down, for example for the duration of a project.

DI-Africa carries the employer's obligations: contract, payroll, contributions, filings, labour law compliance and termination. You direct the work: tasks, objectives, organisation and day-to-day supervision, and you send the monthly variable pay items (hours, bonuses, absences).

In local currency: XAF in Congo and Gabon, XOF in Côte d'Ivoire, MAD in Morocco, MGA in Madagascar, MZN in Mozambique, NAD in Namibia. For expatriates, the package can combine a local component and an EUR, USD or GBP component, in line with foreign exchange regulations.

The price depends on the country, the number of employees, the pay level and the related services (immigration, health insurance, mobility). DI-Africa prepares a tailored quote: contact our experts, who reply within 24 hours.

Yes. DI-Africa Human Resources (Pty) Ltd, a Namibian company set up in 2024 with offices in Walvis Bay and Windhoek, becomes the legal employer of your staff: local contract, payroll in NAD, Social Security Commission, work permits. See our Namibia page and the Namibia immigration guide.

Yes. DI-Africa Congo SA, based in Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville, becomes the legal employer: Congolese-law contract, payroll in XAF, CNSS filings and, for expatriates, ACPE procedures, employment authorisation and resident card. See our Congo page and the Congo immigration guide.

For companies with their own entity, DI-Africa outsources payroll: calculation of salaries, bonuses, allowances and deductions, multi-currency payslips, application of labour law and collective agreements, monthly and annual filings (payroll tax, social contributions, vocational training). See Payroll & compliance.

DI-Africa handles every permit needed to put a foreign employee to work in Africa: entry and business visas, invitation letters, work authorisations and permits, residence permits and resident cards, dependants' permits, plus the mandatory registrations (social security, tax ID, medical check). Each file is run by the DI-Africa entity in the country, which knows the authorities and the real lead times.

It depends on the country and the permit. Average lead times observed by DI-Africa for a work permit: 4 to 8 weeks in Morocco, 6 to 10 in Côte d'Ivoire, 6 to 12 in Gabon, 8 to 14 in Mozambique and 8 to 12 in Namibia for a one-year permit. In Congo, the ACPE step alone takes at least 15 days. DI-Africa opens the file within 48 hours and gives you the timeline at the first exchange.

Generally not. A business or visitor visa covers meetings and prospecting, not productive work: technical work, installation, maintenance or rotations require a work authorisation, even for a few days. In Namibia, for example, assignments of up to 6 months require a short-term work visa applied for online. DI-Africa tells you the right permit before flights are booked.

The cost depends on the country, the permit, its duration and the filing city. DI-Africa's quote separates official fees, set by the authorities, from our own fees, itemised line by line. Describe your need on DI-Africa Global Mobility to receive a quote.

Yes. We prepare visas and residence permits for the spouse and children, then the relocation: housing, school enrolment, driving licence conversion. See our International mobility page.

On DI-Africa Global Mobility, our dedicated immigration site: the Congo guide (resident or rotational route, ACPE, APE, AET, CNSS) and the Namibia guide (visa on arrival, e-visa, work permit, 5-year Business Permit). For other countries, our local referent sends you the information on request.

The full journey of an employee moving to Africa: immigration status and permits, expatriate package, health insurance, arrival welcome, housing, schooling, administrative formalities, host-country payroll, renewals and end of assignment. A single point of contact coordinates everything, in the 14 countries where DI-Africa operates.

A rotational worker alternates periods on site with rest periods outside the country (offshore, construction sites) and needs a temporary work authorisation, such as the AET in Congo. A resident expatriate settles in the country and needs a work permit, a residence permit and registrations, often for the family too. The status is set at the first exchange, as it drives lead times and costs.

Yes. The same employee can be followed from Gabon to Mozambique and then Côte d'Ivoire with centralised follow-up: permits, payroll and compliance are taken over by the DI-Africa entity in each country, and you keep the same point of contact.

An expatriate package combines pay and mobility-related benefits: expatriation allowance, per diem, housing, repatriation and international health insurance. DI-Africa structures it in line with the host country's law and taxation, then runs it through payroll in local currency, with an EUR, USD or GBP component if needed.

In five steps: a competency-based brief; sourcing from the DI-Africa Talents pool (more than 5,000 profiles), the network of our 9 entities and direct approach; structured assessment (interviews, technical tests, references); a shortlist; then onboarding, with EOR if you have no entity in the country. DI-Africa makes more than 200 hires a year.

Engineers, technicians, field operators, managers and support functions, both nationals and expatriates, in oil & gas, mining and energy, construction and infrastructure, agribusiness and logistics, banking and insurance, telecoms and digital, the latter through our Digital Factory.

A first shortlist arrives within 48 hours on average, thanks to our talent pool and sector pipelines; the full, assessed shortlist within 14 days. Recruitment and EOR hiring can follow on: deployment at D+14 after the candidate accepts.

All our openings are published on talents.di-africa.com/jobs, with a country filter. Mining jobs also have their own site, Mining in Africa, and digital jobs are published by our Digital Factory.

Upload your CV on talents.di-africa.com/upload-cv: it is analysed free of charge, matched with the openings that fit you and passed on to our recruiters. Your data stays confidential and is used only by DI-Africa.

International health insurance covering hospitalisation, routine care, dental, optical and maternity, complemented by medical evacuation and repatriation cover. DI-Africa relies on its partnerships with International SOS and April International and adapts the cover to the country and the profile.

No. For an employee on a local contract, contributions to the country's mandatory schemes remain due (CNSS, CNAMGS or CNaPS depending on the country). International health insurance or top-up cover comes on top, for a higher level of care and treatment outside the country.

It is DI-Africa's care coordinator in the Republic of Congo: a third-party payment card, a network of 36 providers in 6 cities, a medical bus for companies, digital occupational health and a health orientation tool. It serves companies, their employees and their families. Website: santediac.di-africa.com.

Yes, with dedicated cover: medical transfer and repatriation for serious cases that cannot be treated locally, coordinated 24/7 with International SOS emergency teams.

Yes. Group plans cover from 5 to more than 500 members, in one or several countries, with a single point of contact and centralised billing and reporting. The quote is sent within 48 hours.

By email at contact@di-africa.com, through the contact form or on WhatsApp. For an immigration or mobility quote, use the DI-Africa Global Mobility form; for recruitment, submit your brief on DI-Africa Recruiters. We reply within 48 hours.

French, English and Portuguese. The website, our guides and our teams cover all three languages, from French-speaking Africa to English-speaking Namibia and Portuguese-speaking Mozambique.