The car has arrived — how do you register it?…

The car is at the port, the duty is paid, and the buyer assumes it can be driven away. What blocks it is usually not the car but the three earlier steps whose paperwork is incomplete.

Registration is not the last step; it is the acceptance check on the three steps before it: duty payment, admission documents (CoC or inspection report) and local inspection. Only when all three are in place does the authority register the car. Miss one and it stays in the yard.

✓Duty receipt, admission documents and local inspection report all in hand

One visit to the counter, then fees and plates

!Only the duty receipt missing

The registration system cannot find the car, so you wait for the tax document

!Left-hand-drive car to be converted locally

Ghana runs an A5 Physical Conversion procedure requiring a customs letter on right-hand drive plus a DVLA physical inspection and road test

×Taking another country's CoC straight to registration

The authority accepts only certificates issued under its own system; a foreign one never reaches the database

Four countries, four counters

Registration has no "African uniform process": the authority, the prerequisites and the inspection step differ country by country.

Country	Authority	Prerequisites	Usual blocker
Ghana	DVLA	Original customs entry documents, PVTS inspection report, Ghana Card, two photos each for old and new owner	PVTS first, then DVLA; reverse the order and you start again
Kenya	NTSA (TIMS / eCitizen)	KRA clearance, customs entry number and chassis number, KEBS CoR	If the system cannot find the entry number, nothing can be keyed in
Nigeria	FRSC, state registration office and VIO	Form MVA01, duty or exemption certificate, valid insurance, roadworthiness for commercial vehicles	A commercial vehicle without the roadworthiness certificate cannot be registered
Tanzania	TRA (IDRAS) and TBS	Customs clearance certificate, TBS roadworthiness certificate, police inspection report for vehicles over 3 years	Without the TBS certificate, TRA will not release the car

Ghana runs five steps: take the car and the customs documents to a PVTS for inspection and the report; take car and customs file to the DVLA registration centre for verification and release; submit the file for the ownership check; invoice and pay by engine capacity or tonnage; collect the registration number, plates, VRC and roadworthy sticker. The customs original is the starting point, the PVTS report is compulsory, and DVLA only verifies and issues.

Kenya does the whole thing on NTSA's TIMS, now inside eCitizen: enter the KRA PIN, the customs entry number and the chassis number, the system pulls up the vehicle record, choose how to collect the plates and logbook, pay and wait for approval. RFID tag KSh 750, ordinary plates 2050, plates and logbook three working days each; registration duty is paid by engine capacity at the customs stage.

Nigeria files Form MVA01, attaches the duty or exemption certificate and valid insurance, adds a roadworthiness certificate for commercial vehicles, and runs the NVIS check at registration. A customs Form C250 (proof of ownership) is mentioned by several sources, but no official NCS page was found, so follow whatever the clearing customs office requires at the time.

Tanzania is longer: declare and pay at TRA, obtain the TANSAD, run the TBS condition inspection and take the roadworthiness certificate, get TRA release, collect from TPA, then take the registration card. The TRA form requires the customs clearance certificate for imports, a police inspection report for vehicles over 3 years or take-on cases, and SARPCCO certification for imports from SADC.

Senegal registers vehicles through the DTT and the regional DRTT offices (land transport), not ANAT — ANAT is the national land-use agency and has nothing to do with vehicle registration. The file includes the DGID tax stamp, proof of the registration fee, insurance and ID; imports also need the customs release certificate (CMC), a technical inspection and a certificate of conformity. No official DTT page was found, so rely on written confirmation from the local agent.

China side: prepare before export

Second-hand vehicle exports run under a licence: one licence per consignment, at most 20 vehicles under the same commodity code, the quantity applied for must match the customs declaration and clear in one go, and the deregistration must be filed within 2 months of declaration. Miss that window and the system shuts the company out of the next consignment.

The documents that travel with the car are: commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin, the second-hand export licence, a third-party inspection report (WM/T 8-2022 or WM/T 9-2022), a declaration of conformity with the destination market's admission standards, an export contract that includes after-sales service, and the vehicle registration certificate endorsed "transfer pending export". No licence requirement was found for new vehicles in ordinary trade, so do not apply the one-licence-per-consignment rule to them. Vehicles with incomplete statutory documents or a failed inspection are barred from export, and they will not register abroad either.

Five steps

Settle which certificate the destination needs

CoC, CoR and PVoC differ by country; decide before loading, not at the port

Clear and pay duty

The model and VIN on the tax document must match the customs declaration

Run the local inspection

Ghana PVTS, Tanzania TBS, Senegal technical inspection — different designated bodies

Kenya keys the entry and chassis number into TIMS; Nigeria files MVA01 and runs NVIS

Collect plates and logbook

Three working days each in Kenya; in Ghana the VRC, plates and roadworthy sticker

Five traps

✓Assuming an African uniform registration process — five countries, five sets of authorities
✓Queuing with only the duty receipt missing — the system has no such car, wasted trip
✓Taking another country's CoC or a Chinese inspection report straight to registration — most countries accept only their own
✓Converting a left-hand-drive car yourself — Ghana requires the A5 route with a customs letter and a physical test
✓Letting the export licence lapse beyond 2 months after declaration — the system shuts down and the next consignment cannot leave

Registration is the step after admission; admission itself is covered in "From October 2026, these used cars cannot enter Ghana". For the landed tax cost, start from the site's import duty calculator at CIF (/en/duty-calculator).

Position verified on 5 November 2026. Registration documents, fees and lead times follow the authority's current notices and written confirmation from the local agent.