Algeria's National Investment Single Window: what Decree 26-326 changes for your file
In short: Presidential Decree No. 26-326 of 12 October 2026 creates the National Investment Single Window, a public body under the Prime Minister described as the single and exclusive point of contact for investors. It takes over registration, incentives, economic land and the issuing of deeds. The board rules on eligible files within 25 days, the hubs issue permits within 15 days, and a prior opinion covers the degree of market saturation, which changes what studies must show. The transition from AAPI will follow a timetable not yet set. Land allocation is left to a separate text; until then, the scoring grid of Decree No. 23-487 still applies.
Keywords in this article
1. What is the National Investment Single Window?
Presidential Decree No. 26-326 of 12 October 2026, published in Official Journal No. 72 of 13 October 2026, creates a new body: the National Investment Single Window (guichet unique national de l'investissement), referred to in the text as "the window".
It is a public administrative body with legal personality and financial autonomy (Article 2). It reports to the Prime Minister (Article 3) and is based in Algiers (Article 4). Its chairman and CEO is appointed by presidential decree and holds the rank of minister of state (Article 14).
"Le guichet constitue l'interlocuteur unique, intégré et exclusif des investisseurs": the window is the single, integrated and exclusive point of contact for investors (Article 5).
The same article adds that it rules on all decisions and issues every document linked to the investments registered with it, from registration through to construction and operation.
Article 7 goes further. The window is the only body authorised to handle all procedures and deeds relating to the investments registered with its services, whatever their nature. For an investment registered there, there is no other door.
2. What does it take over from AAPI?
Most of what investors have dealt with so far through the Algerian Investment Promotion Agency (AAPI) and its one-stop desks. Article 6 lists its tasks, which we group below.
| Area | What the window now handles |
|---|---|
| Reception and information | Welcoming and advising investors, with support; information systems on the data projects need; management of the investor's digital platform |
| Economic land | Building a land portfolio, a database of available plots, management of economic land, its promotion and allocation, the State's pre-emption right, creation of industrial zones |
| Incentives | Deciding on eligibility for investment incentives, then granting and monitoring them |
| Deeds and permits | Issuing any deed or approval, and any permit, linked to building and operating the project |
| Monitoring | Compliance with commitments, project progress, field visits |
| Complaints | Handling investors' complaints and grievances, except appeals |
AAPI does not disappear under the decree. It carries on with its tasks until the window is effectively set up (Article 47), and then receives the data needed to promote Algeria as a destination (Article 37). But the investor's journey changes hands.
3. How will a file be processed, and how fast?
Article 30 sets out a pathway in several steps. The table follows them in order.
| Step | Who | Deadline or rule |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Filing the application and file | The project owner, through the investor's digital platform | Online filing |
| 2. Preliminary review | The window's technical departments | They draw up a technical opinion (Article 19) |
| 3. Prior opinion | The chairman and CEO | Covers in particular relevance, land availability and how saturated the market segment is (Article 15) |
| 4. Validation | The board of directors, case by case | 25 days, including registration, processing and the eligibility decision |
| 5. Notification | From the board to the specialised hubs | For implementation, each in its own field |
| 6. Deeds and permits | The specialised hubs | 15 days from receipt of the file; 20 days at most for prior approval of classified facilities in categories 1 to 3 (Article 23) |
Requests for additional documents or information suspend the deadlines (Article 30). The 25 days do not run while a missing item is awaited. Filing a complete file from day one remains the only way to benefit from the deadline.
The board is informed of the projects processed and declared ineligible. Validated projects are then placed, depending on availability and priorities, in the window's land portfolio (Article 31). Projects that do not seek incentives can also use the hubs' support (Article 33).
A file pending with AAPI, or one to prepare?
We tell you what the transition changes for your file, and we prepare the techno-economic study with the market-saturation case the window will examine. Scoping is free and leads to a written quote.
Review my file4. What is "market saturation", and why must your study address it?
This is the change that matters most for how a file is prepared. Before any board decision, the chairman and CEO gives a prior opinion on registered projects, "notamment sur leur opportunité, la disponibilité du foncier et le degré de saturation du créneau": in particular on their relevance, land availability and the degree of saturation of the market segment (Article 15).
The board, for its part, deliberates on the relevance and feasibility of projects, the criteria for assessing them and any thresholds applicable to their files (Article 10). It also sets the list of priority activities.
The decree defines neither saturation nor its thresholds; the board will set them. But the practical consequence is already clear. A file that does not show the market is unsaturated leaves that question to the window's own judgement. The market study inside the techno-economic study is no longer a formality.
In our experience, the file needs three things: the production capacity already installed in the segment and region, the demand or imports the project will replace, and the target market share, in figures. The field checks that produce these figures are described in our article on market studies, and the required content of the study in the Annex V template.
5. What do the specialised hubs change?
The specialised hubs are where a file turns into deeds. They bring together, in one place, authorised representatives of all the administrations and bodies involved in investment (Article 20), organised around nine areas: company formation; project registration; economic land; tax, customs and state property; financial support; planning and operation; utility connections; social security and employment; permits and approvals.
Four rules give these hubs their weight.
- Hub heads sign. They may issue and sign every deed and permit linked to building and operating the investment (Article 22).
- Their documents are binding. No administration may make a decision lawfully taken by the hubs subject to a new formality or a fresh administrative assessment (Article 24).
- Only the courts can overturn them. Decisions and documents issued by the hubs cannot be suspended, withdrawn or challenged by another administrative authority "que par voie judiciaire", only through the courts (Article 24).
- Sector committees step aside. Committees set up by the window replace sectoral and cross-sector committees for the investments it handles (Article 25).
Two practical points to finish. Duties and taxes linked to permits, fees included, are paid at the window (Article 34), and its budget includes fees for processing investment files (Article 42), the amount of which the decree does not set. The whole pathway is to be fully digital, with electronic signature and certification (Article 35); see the legal value of electronic signatures.
6. What happens to files already filed with AAPI?
The decree organises a transition but does not date it.
- Acquired rights are protected. The set-up takes place without prejudice to rights and incentives already granted to investors, or to decisions already taken, and without any break in service (Article 46).
- Pending files move. Files being processed at AAPI's single window for major projects and foreign investment and at its decentralised desks are inventoried and transferred on a timetable set by joint decision of the two heads (Article 46).
- So does concession monitoring. Monitoring of commitments by holders of an economic land concession granted under Law No. 23-17 of 15 November 2023 passes to the window, on the same kind of timetable (Article 46).
- Meanwhile, AAPI remains competent until the window is effectively set up (Article 47).
What the text does not yet say
One point can already be read, and three questions remain open as of 17 October 2026.
The land scoring grid still applies. The arrangements for allocating land through the window are to be set by a separate text (Article 31), which has not yet been published. Executive Decree No. 23-487, as amended by Decree No. 26-154, is cited in the preamble of Decree No. 26-326 and has not been repealed. Its 1,500-point scoring grid (Annex I) and its study template (Annex V) therefore continue to apply until the separate text changes them. The grid is detailed in our article on project scoring.
- The fate of the AAPI decree. Article 49 repeals all conflicting regulatory provisions without naming Decree No. 26-153, which reorganised AAPI in April 2026.
- The start date of the window, which depends on its effective set-up.
- Appeals. The window handles complaints "except appeals", without saying who hears them. Until a new text says otherwise, we read the National High Commission for Investment Appeals as still competent.
In our experience, the right approach during the transition is simple: do not put a file on hold to wait for the window, and prepare the market-saturation argument now, because it will be asked for.
This article presents Presidential Decree No. 26-326 as published in Official Journal No. 72 of 13 October 2026. It does not constitute legal advice, nor any guarantee of obtaining land, incentives or permits. Several arrangements depend on texts and decisions still to come: check the state of the law and the window's start date before filing.
FAQ — Frequently asked questions
It takes over most of the investor's journey: registration, incentives and economic land, then deeds and monitoring. AAPI carries on until the window is effectively set up (Article 47 of Decree No. 26-326), then receives the data needed to promote Algeria as a destination (Article 37). Files pending at its desks are inventoried and transferred on a timetable set by joint decision (Article 46).
The board rules on eligible files within 25 days, covering registration, processing and the eligibility decision (Article 30). The hubs then issue permits within 15 days of receiving the files, or 20 days at most for prior approval of classified facilities (Article 23). Requests for additional documents suspend these deadlines.
It is one of the points on which the window's chairman and CEO gives a prior opinion, together with the project's relevance and land availability (Article 15). The decree does not define it; the board sets the assessment criteria and any thresholds (Article 10). A techno-economic study should therefore show, in figures, that the target market is not saturated.
No. Rights and incentives already acquired are protected, as are decisions already taken, and pending files are transferred to the window after an inventory (Article 46). AAPI remains competent until the window is effectively set up (Article 47).
Yes. Decree No. 26-326 leaves the arrangements for allocating land through the window to a separate text (Article 31), not yet published. Until then, Executive Decree No. 23-487, as amended by Decree No. 26-154 and cited in the preamble of Decree No. 26-326, remains in force with its 1,500-point scoring grid and its study template.
The window handles investors' complaints and grievances, except appeals (Article 6). The decree does not name the appeals body. Until a new text says otherwise, the National High Commission for Investment Appeals, set up by Presidential Decree No. 22-296, remains the reference. Decisions of the hubs can only be challenged by another administrative authority through the courts (Article 24).
Sources and references
- Presidential Decree No. 26-326 of 12 October 2026 on the tasks, organisation and functioning of the National Investment Single Window: Articles 2 to 7 (status, supervision, seat, single point of contact, tasks, exclusive body), 9 to 15 (board of directors, prior opinion of the chairman and CEO), 19 to 25 (technical departments, specialised hubs, 15 and 20-day deadlines, binding effect), 30 to 37 (pathway, 25-day deadline, suspension of deadlines, land, digitalisation), 42 (fees), 46 to 49 (transitional provisions and repeal). Read in the copy of the issue held by the firm (French and Arabic versions). — Official Journal of the Algerian Republic No. 72 of 13 October 2026 · Verified on 17/10/2026
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