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Last amendment: > on 2025-09-02.
Loi n°2024-045 is Mauritania's first horizontal cross-sectoral local-content statute, covering mines, hydrocarbons, gas, and energy in a single legislative instrument. This distinguishes it from the sector-specific petroleum-only regimes of Angola (DP 271/20) and Mozambique (DM 55/2024), which were restricted to upstream oil-and-gas operators.
The law creates a Conseil National du Contenu Local (CNCL) — a multi-stakeholder coordinating body tasked with elaborating national local-content strategy and policy, supported by a dedicated technical unit (cellule dédiée) within the competent ministry. The CNCL model mirrors structures in Tanzania and Nigeria, where analogous national local-content agencies operate as the primary compliance-enforcement and dispute-resolution channel for extractive-sector operators.
Operator obligations under the law: 1. Triennial forecasting plans (plans prévisionnels triennaux): All operators and their subcontractors must submit rolling three-year plans detailing national employment policy targets and local-supplier integration commitments. 2. Annual performance reports: Yearly compliance reports tracking actual performance against triennial commitments, submitted to the CNCL or its technical unit. 3. National employment priority: The décret d'application entrenches a principle of national employment preference — Mauritanian labour must be prioritised in hiring, with competitive advantages given to Mauritanian enterprises in goods and services procurement. 4. Digital monitoring platform: A centralised platform will host forecasting plans, track performance, and aggregate employment and subcontracting data for end-to-end traceability. This is the first digital-native transparency mechanism in Mauritanian extractive-sector law. 5. Incentive + sanction architecture: Performance-based incentives reward operators that exceed local-content commitments; administrative and financial sanctions apply to non-compliant operators and subcontractors.
$150M loan, 2024) that will require substantial procurement of machinery, services, and labour. Loi 2024-045 now imposes formal local-content plan and reporting obligations over this investment cycle.
(offshore Mauritania–Senegal cross-border, Phase 1 first cargo 2024) is the largest hydrocarbon development in the country. GTA operators will need to submit triennial plans and annual reports to the CNCL covering Mauritanian national employment and local subcontracting — a new compliance layer on a project already subject to the cross-border Senegal-Mauritania Gas Treaty framework.
horizontal scope. The digital monitoring platform requirement creates operational transparency obligations for tier-1 international mining operators with Mauritanian assets.
incentivise operators to develop domestic supplier pipelines in equipment maintenance, civil works, catering, and transport — consistent with the law's stated goal of "shared value creation" beyond traditional extractivism.
The law's drafting process began in early 2024 as part of President Ghazouani's economic sovereignty agenda, with the projet de loi circulated in July 2024 (CNITIE domain). It was passed by the Assemblée Nationale and promulgated on 18 December 2024. The Council of Ministers approved the implementing decree on 2 September 2025. Full entry into force of operator compliance obligations is expected once the decree is published in the Journal Officiel de la République Islamique de Mauritanie (JORIM).
confirmed — source is Ministry of Energy's website + press coverage).
the new triennial plan obligations retroactively.