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Overview

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Identifiers

Collect two identifiers from each business customer in São Tomé and Príncipe and submit them as strings on the application body. Tax ID: 9-digit number; issued simultaneously with commercial registration via GUE; serves as both income-tax and VAT identifier. Registration number: Assigned at incorporation; appears on the Certidão de Registo Comercial.

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Sector regulators

BCSTP · UIF-STP · DGI

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How documents combine

For each evidence area, this table shows whether the listed documents are alternatives (any one of) or a bundle (all required). The artifact-by-artifact lookup follows below.

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Documents to collect

The physical documents you’ll collect from your customer, with the evidence area each one proves. One document can prove multiple areas — for example, Brazil’s Cartão CNPJ covers both tax and business-registration proof, so it appears once with both areas listed.

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Collection notes

  • Legal Registration: Issued within 1–4 working days of GUE submission; contains registration number, legal form, and corporate officers.
  • Constitutive Documents: Single constitutive document drafted by the founding partners and notarised; filed with GUE at incorporation.
  • Tax Registration: Issued by DGI; co-issued via GUE at incorporation. 9-digit NIF; dual income-tax/VAT identifier.
  • Operating Permit: Issued by Direção de Comércio (Ministry of Commerce); required before commencing operations; obtained post-registration.
  • Sector-Specific License: Required for banking, insurance, payment services, microfinance, and currency exchange; issued by BCSTP.
  • Ownership Records: Lista de sócios/quotas incorporada no Pacto Social ou no registo anual.
  • Governance Records: Current directors/managers listed on the Certidão; SA must also maintain Conselho de Administração minutes.
  • Signing Authority: Notarised power of attorney or formal managers’ resolution; required for agents who are not registered gerentes/administradores.
  • Address: Conduit universal policy: lease (no time bound) OR utility bill OR bank statement, with utility/bank dated within 90 days. Same evidence satisfies both registered-address and operating-address checks.
  • Good Standing: São Tomé and Príncipe’s DGRN does not issue a separate Certificate of Good Standing. The Certidão de Registo Comercial issued via GUE is dated and carries the entity’s current legal status, registered officers and capital, and serves the same live-status function under the Portuguese-tradition registo comercial model. Request a Certidão dated within 30 days for banking use.

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Person roles

When you submit a person on the application body, set their role to one of Conduit’s canonical BusinessPersonRole values. Use this table to map a local corporate-governance title onto the right canonical role.

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Notes

  • São Tomé and Príncipe is not OHADA; the foundational companies law is the 1888 Código Comercial as amended by Law 14/2009 — do not apply OHADA AUSCGIE templates.
  • The GUE co-issues the NIF and Certidão de Registo Comercial simultaneously; however, the Alvará Comercial is a separate post-registration step from the Direção de Comércio and is commonly overlooked by foreign operators.
  • São Tomé and Príncipe has acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention (accession 19-XII-2007; in force 13-IX-2008) — apostille is accepted for foreign public documents instead of full consular legalisation chain.
  • All registration documents must be in Portuguese or formally translated by a certified translator; no other language is accepted by GUE or DGRN.