Manage Company POAs Saudi: Najiz Wakala Guide 2026

By Fazal Hashmi — Sr. Business Consultant, Noble Core · Updated June 2026

What it means to manage company POAs in Saudi Arabia

A power of attorney — wakala (وكالة) in Arabic — is the legal instrument by which a company authorises a named individual to act on its behalf. For a Saudi company, the POA is what allows a general manager, a PRO, a finance head or an external consultant to sign contracts, open bank accounts, register employees, respond to inspections, collect government documents, or represent the company before courts and ministries.

Historically this meant a physical visit to a notary public (kātib al-‘adl), an Arabic-language deed, wet signatures and paper copies filed in a drawer. Today the Ministry of Justice has moved almost the entire lifecycle onto Najiz. When people say they need to manage company POAs in Saudi Arabia, they usually mean one of five distinct actions:

• Issue a new POA from the company to an individual (or to another company).
• View POAs already issued by, or issued to, the entity — the “wakalat issued to me / issued by me” registers.
• Verify a POA that a counterparty has presented, using its POA number and the deed’s national verification code.
• Amend or extend — practically, this means revoking and re-issuing with corrected powers or a new expiry date.
• Revoke (cancel) a POA when an employee leaves, a mandate ends, or the scope was drawn too wide.

The critical shift is that an electronic wakala on Najiz is self-verifying. Banks, the Ministry of Commerce, ZATCA, MHRSD and most government counters can query the POA directly against the Ministry of Justice database using the POA number and the agent’s national/Iqama ID. There is no stamped paper to lose, and no notary appointment to book for standard cases.

Who needs to manage company POAs — and when

Almost every registered entity in the Kingdom ends up managing at least one commercial POA. The most common triggers:

Foreign-owned companies with a MISA licence

If your shareholders sit abroad, someone inside the Kingdom must be legally empowered to act day-to-day. A MISA-licensed LLC typically issues a POA to its resident general manager covering commercial registration matters, banking, government relations and employment filings. If you are still at the licensing stage, our guide to the MISA investment licence for foreign investors explains what has to exist before the POA can be issued at all.

Companies onboarding or offboarding a PRO / mandoob

The government-relations officer is the single most POA-dependent role in a Saudi company. Every time that person changes, the outgoing POA must be revoked the same week and a new one issued — otherwise a former employee retains live authority over your Qiwa, Muqeem, Absher Business and Najiz transactions.

Branches, subsidiaries and multi-city operations

A branch manager in Jeddah or Dammam generally needs a scoped POA covering only that branch’s dealings with Balady (municipal licensing), Civil Defence and the local chamber of commerce.

Litigation, arbitration and debt recovery

Saudi courts require a specific litigation POA. A general commercial wakala frequently does not include the right to plead, settle or receive judgment amounts, and the case will stall at the registrar until a properly scoped POA is filed.

Banking and finance

Saudi banks apply their own POA scrutiny on top of the Ministry of Justice record. Many require that the POA explicitly names account-opening, cheque-signing and transfer authority in separate clauses rather than relying on a broad “all commercial matters” wording.

Prerequisites before you can issue a company POA on Najiz

Najiz will not let a company issue a wakala until several upstream records are clean and linked. Check all of the following first — this is where most rejections originate.

1. An active commercial register. Under the Commercial Register Law effective 3 April 2026, you should hold the unified national CR whose ID begins with “7”. The new CR has no expiry date; instead you file an annual confirmation. If that confirmation is overdue, dependent services — including POA issuance — can be blocked.
2. An authorised signatory recorded at the Ministry of Commerce. The person issuing the POA on behalf of the company must appear on the entity’s MC record (manager, or a partner with signing authority per the articles of association).
3. A verified Absher account for the signatory. Najiz authenticates individuals through the National Single Sign-On, which relies on Absher. The signatory needs an active Absher Individuals account with a registered mobile number for OTP.
4. Valid ID for the agent. The person receiving the POA needs a Saudi national ID, or a valid Iqama (residence permit) with matching date of birth as recorded in Muqeem. Expired Iqamas cause an immediate rejection.
5. A Saudi mobile number for the agent. The agent receives a notification and, for some POA types, must accept the wakala from their own Najiz account.
6. Articles of association that permit delegation. Some AoAs restrict a manager’s ability to sub-delegate. If yours does, a partners’ resolution may be required before the POA can be issued.

Step-by-step: how to manage company POAs in Saudi Arabia on Najiz

The exact screen labels shift as the Ministry of Justice updates the platform, but the flow below reflects the current Najiz e-services structure. Najiz is bilingual; switch to English via the language toggle at the top right if Arabic is not comfortable, though the deed itself is issued in Arabic.

Issuing a new commercial POA

1. Log in. Go to najiz.sa and choose Login, then authenticate through the National Single Sign-On with your Absher credentials and the OTP sent to your registered mobile.
2. Switch to the company identity. On the dashboard, open the account/identity selector and choose Establishments or Act on behalf of an entity, then select the commercial register you are acting for. If your CR does not appear, the Ministry of Commerce signatory record is the thing to fix, not Najiz.
3. Open the POA service. Navigate to E-Services → Powers of Attorney (Wakalat) → Issue a Power of Attorney. Select the principal type as Establishment / Company.
4. Enter the agent. Input the agent’s national ID or Iqama number plus date of birth. The system pulls the verified name automatically — do not type the name manually.
5. Select the powers. This is the substantive step. Najiz presents a structured catalogue of powers grouped by category: commercial register matters, chambers of commerce, labour and workforce (Qiwa/MHRSD), zakat and tax (ZATCA), municipal (Balady), banking, real estate, government tenders (Etimad), litigation, and general representation. Tick only what the role genuinely requires.
6. Set the term and any restrictions. Choose an expiry date — a fixed term is strongly preferable to an open-ended wakala — and specify whether the agent may sub-delegate. Default to “no sub-delegation” unless there is a concrete reason.
7. Review and submit. Read the generated Arabic text, confirm, and authorise with the OTP. The POA is registered and a POA number is issued, typically instantly or within the same working day.
8. Have the agent accept. The agent logs into their own Najiz account and accepts under Powers of Attorney issued to me. Until acceptance, some counterparties will treat the POA as not yet effective.

Viewing and auditing existing POAs

From the same POA menu, open Powers of Attorney issued by me while acting as the company. You will see every live wakala with its number, agent name, powers summary, issue date and status. Export or screenshot this list quarterly — it is the fastest company-wide authority audit available, and it regularly surfaces POAs that management had forgotten existed.

Verifying a POA presented to you

Najiz offers a public Verify a Deed / Query a Power of Attorney service that needs no login. Enter the POA number and the agent’s ID; the platform confirms whether the wakala is active, revoked or expired, and shows the scope. Always run this before accepting a signature from someone claiming to represent a counterparty.

Revoking a POA

1. Open Powers of Attorney issued by me and locate the wakala.
2. Select Cancel / Revoke (إلغاء الوكالة).
3. Confirm with OTP. Revocation is effective from registration and is visible immediately to anyone verifying the deed.
4. Notify the agent and, separately, notify your bank in writing — banks often keep their own internal mandate file that does not auto-sync with the Ministry of Justice record.

There is no true “edit” function for a registered wakala. To change scope or extend a term, revoke the old POA and issue a fresh one. Plan this so there is no gap in authority during a live transaction.

Documents and IDs required

For a standard electronic commercial POA you rarely upload anything — Najiz reads the underlying registers. Keep the following ready anyway, because non-standard cases and bank onboarding will ask for them.

• Unified national commercial register number (the “7…” ID) and a current CR extract.
• Articles of association / company bylaws, including any amendments naming the managers.
• National ID or Iqama of the principal signatory, plus an active Absher account.
• National ID or Iqama of the agent, with at least 3 months’ validity remaining as a practical buffer.
• Saudi mobile numbers for both parties (OTP delivery).
• MISA investment licence, for foreign-owned entities.
• For a foreign parent company appointing an agent: a POA executed abroad, legalised and attested through the Saudi embassy chain and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), then translated into Arabic by a licensed translator and notarised in the Kingdom.
• Partners’ resolution, where the AoA requires shareholder approval for delegation.

Fees and timelines (indicative)

Electronic POA services on Najiz are, for most standard commercial wakalat, provided without a separate issuance fee — the cost sits in the surrounding compliance work rather than the deed itself. Cross-border and attested POAs are where real expense appears. All figures below are indicative; confirm current figures on the official portal before budgeting.

Service / item	Portal or authority	Indicative fee (SAR)	Typical timeline
Issue electronic commercial POA	Najiz (Ministry of Justice)	0 (no standard issuance fee)	Same day; often minutes
Revoke / cancel POA	Najiz	0	Immediate on OTP confirmation
Verify a POA (public query)	Najiz	0	Instant
Notarised POA via notary public (non-standard cases)	Ministry of Justice notary	Varies — commonly nominal	1–5 working days
Legalisation of a foreign POA (embassy + MOFA chain)	Saudi embassy / MOFA	~1,000–3,000 plus courier	1–4 weeks
Certified Arabic legal translation	Licensed translator	~150–400 per page	1–3 working days
Unified commercial register (issue)	Ministry of Commerce	~1,200–2,000	1–3 working days
Chamber of Commerce membership (annual)	Local chamber	~2,000–3,000	1–2 working days
MISA licence issue / renewal	MISA	Fees suspended in 2026 (previously 12,000 / 62,000)	~3–10 business days
Iqama issue / renewal (government fee)	MHRSD / Jawazat via Absher	~650 per year plus applicable levies	1–5 working days

Two related running costs worth remembering when you scope a POA: GOSI contributions for a Saudi employee total roughly 21.5% (employer and employee combined) via gosi.gov.sa, and VAT is 15% with ZATCA e-invoicing (Fatoora) rolling out in waves. If your POA holder handles payroll or tax filings, those are the systems they will be signing into.

How POAs connect to the wider Saudi government stack

A wakala is rarely used in isolation. In practice, the same authorised person moves across several platforms in a single week, and the POA is what makes each of those logins legitimate.

• Ministry of Commerce and the Saudi Business Center — CR amendments, adding activities, annual confirmation under the 2026 law, and registering English trade names now that these are permitted.
• Qiwa and MHRSD — employment contracts, work permits, Saudization (Nitaqat) band management, establishment file updates.
• Muqeem — residency services for expatriate staff, exit/re-entry visas, Iqama renewals.
• Absher Business — the delegation layer many companies use alongside the Najiz POA for day-to-day residency and traffic services.
• ZATCA — VAT registration and returns, zakat filings, e-invoicing onboarding, customs matters.
• Balady — municipal licences for premises, signage approvals, health permits.
• Etimad — registering for and bidding on government tenders, where a specific tendering power in the POA is usually mandatory.
• Monsha’at — SME support programmes, incentives and enablement services.
• Najiz — the POA register itself, plus case filing, execution requests and deed verification.

A useful discipline: map each platform your business touches to a named POA holder and a named backup. When a POA expires or a person leaves, you will know instantly which services go dark.

Scoping powers properly — the part most companies get wrong

Najiz makes it easy to tick every box in the powers catalogue. Resist that. A wakala is a live legal authority, and an over-broad one is the single largest avoidable risk in Saudi corporate administration.

Use role-based POA templates

Rather than one omnibus POA, most well-run companies maintain three or four standard scopes:

• PRO / government relations: Qiwa, Muqeem, Absher Business, Balady, chamber attestations, document collection. No banking, no share transfers, no litigation.
• Finance: ZATCA filings, GOSI, bank account operation within stated limits. No CR amendments.
• General manager: commercial register matters, contracting, general representation. Sub-delegation disabled.
• Legal counsel: litigation, execution, settlement — issued per matter with a defined expiry.

Always set an expiry

An open-ended POA outlives the relationship that justified it. A 12-month term forces an annual review, which is exactly the cadence the new annual CR confirmation already imposes.

Never grant share transfer or company dissolution powers casually

Powers touching ownership — transferring shares, amending the articles of association, liquidating the entity, or pledging assets — should sit with shareholders or be issued for a single, defined transaction and revoked the moment it completes.

Keep a POA register of your own

Najiz shows you what is live today. It does not tell you why the POA was issued or who approved it. Maintain a simple internal sheet: POA number, agent, scope summary, business justification, issue date, expiry, approver, revocation date. Auditors, banks and incoming investors all ask for exactly this.

Common problems and how to resolve them

The company does not appear when acting on behalf of an entity

Nine times out of ten the signatory is not recorded as an authorised manager at the Ministry of Commerce, or the CR’s annual confirmation is overdue. Fix the MC record first, then retry Najiz after the systems sync (allow up to 24 hours).

“Agent data does not match”

The ID number and date of birth must match the national records exactly. For Iqama holders, note that the date of birth on record may be Hijri; entering the Gregorian equivalent from a passport is a frequent cause of failure.

OTP never arrives

The mobile number must be the one registered in Absher, not the number on the CR. Update it in Absher, wait for propagation, and retry.

A bank refuses a valid electronic POA

Ask the branch precisely which power they cannot find in the deed. Usually the wakala lacks an explicit banking clause. Revoke and re-issue with the specific banking powers ticked rather than arguing the general clause covers it.

The foreign parent’s POA is rejected

Cross-border POAs fail on chain-of-attestation gaps far more often than on content. The sequence — notary in the home country, home foreign ministry, Saudi embassy, then MOFA in the Kingdom, then licensed Arabic translation — must be complete and in order.

An agent has left the company but still transacts

Revoke on Najiz immediately, then separately remove their delegation in Absher Business, Qiwa and Muqeem. Revoking the wakala does not automatically strip platform-level delegations that were granted independently.

POA management during company formation and licensing

Timing matters. A newly incorporated company cannot issue a POA until its commercial register exists, yet many pre-incorporation steps themselves require someone empowered to act for the foreign shareholders. The usual sequence for a foreign investor is: an attested POA from the parent company or founders to a representative in the Kingdom → MISA licence → articles of association → commercial register → chamber membership → then a domestic Najiz POA replacing the attested foreign one for ongoing operations.

Getting this order wrong costs weeks, because an attested foreign POA that omits, say, the power to sign the AoA before the notary has to be redone through the entire embassy chain. If you are planning an entry, our company formation in Saudi Arabia guide walks through the full sequence, and the 100% foreign ownership now available across most activities means fewer local-partner POAs than in previous years.

Also plan for the 2026 CR changes. The unified national register removed the old expiry-renewal cycle in favour of an annual confirmation, with a five-year grace framework for transition. POAs referencing an old-format CR number should be reviewed and, where the number has changed, re-issued so that counterparties verifying the deed see a matching register.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Issuing one “everything” POA to a single employee instead of scoped, role-based wakalat.
• Leaving POAs open-ended with no expiry date, so authority quietly outlives the job.
• Forgetting to revoke when a PRO, manager or consultant leaves — the most common and most damaging oversight.
• Assuming revocation cascades to Absher Business, Qiwa and Muqeem delegations. It does not; strip each separately.
• Allowing sub-delegation by default, which lets your agent create POAs you never approved.
• Relying on a broad clause where a bank, court or Etimad tender requires an explicitly named power.
• Using an expiring Iqama for the agent — the POA becomes practically unusable when the residence permit lapses.
• Skipping the agent’s acceptance step and then finding the wakala treated as ineffective at the counter.
• Not verifying counterparty POAs on Najiz before signing — verification is free and takes seconds.
• Breaking the attestation chain on a foreign POA, or translating before legalisation rather than after.
• Ignoring the annual CR confirmation, which can block dependent services including POA issuance.
• Keeping no internal POA register, so nobody can answer “who is authorised to do what?” during due diligence.

How Noble Core helps you manage company POAs in Saudi Arabia

Most POA problems are not legal problems — they are administrative ones, caused by nobody owning the register. Noble Core Ventures runs POA lifecycle management as part of ongoing corporate services for companies operating in the Kingdom.

• POA audit. We pull your live wakalat from Najiz, map them against actual roles, and flag over-broad, expired or orphaned authorities.
• Scoped drafting. Role-based power sets for PRO, finance, general management and litigation, with expiry dates and sub-delegation disabled by default.
• Issuance and revocation support. We walk your authorised signatory through Najiz screen by screen, or coordinate the notary route for non-standard cases.
• Cross-border attestation. Managing the embassy → MOFA → certified translation chain for foreign shareholders, in the right order the first time.
• PRO and mandoob services. Where you would rather not carry an in-house government-relations officer, Noble Core’s PRO and mandoob service supplies a vetted representative under a tightly scoped POA, with substitution handled without a gap in authority.
• Full setup. For new entrants, formation, MISA licensing, CR, chamber, bank introduction, GOSI and ZATCA registrations are delivered as one package from SAR 36,999, with POA sequencing built into the plan.

Saudi Arabia’s digital government programme under Vision 2030 has made POA administration genuinely fast — Najiz turns what used to be a notary appointment into a few minutes online. The remaining work is discipline: scope narrowly, set expiries, revoke promptly, and review the register on a fixed schedule. Companies that do that never have an authority surprise; companies that do not usually discover the gap at the worst possible moment, halfway through a bank onboarding or a tender submission.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I manage company POAs in Saudi Arabia online?

You manage company POAs in Saudi Arabia through Najiz at najiz.sa, the Ministry of Justice platform. Log in with Absher single sign-on, switch to your establishment identity, then open E-Services and Powers of Attorney to issue, view, verify or revoke a wakala. Most standard electronic commercial POAs are registered the same day with no separate issuance fee.

What is a wakala and how does it differ from a POA?

Wakala is simply the Arabic term for a power of attorney, so a commercial wakala and a company POA are the same instrument. It authorises a named individual to act for your company before ministries, banks and courts. Saudi deeds are issued in Arabic on Najiz, and the platform’s English interface labels the same service Powers of Attorney.

Is there a government fee to issue a company POA on Najiz?

For most standard electronic commercial POAs there is no separate government issuance fee on Najiz, and revocation and public verification are also free. Costs appear in surrounding steps instead: certified Arabic translation around SAR 150 to 400 per page and foreign POA legalisation roughly SAR 1,000 to 3,000. These are indicative, so confirm current figures on the official portal.

How long does it take to issue or revoke a POA in Saudi Arabia?

An electronic commercial POA issued on Najiz is usually registered within minutes and almost always the same working day, once OTP confirmation completes. Revocation is effective immediately upon confirmation and becomes visible to anyone verifying the deed. Non-standard notary cases take one to five working days, while a foreign POA attestation chain typically runs one to four weeks.

Can I amend an existing company POA, or must I re-issue it?

There is no true edit function for a registered wakala on Najiz. To change the scope of powers, the expiry date or the sub-delegation setting, you revoke the existing POA and issue a fresh one with corrected terms. Sequence this carefully so no live transaction, bank instruction or tender submission is left without valid authority during the changeover.

What documents does a foreign shareholder need for a Saudi company POA?

A foreign parent company needs a POA executed at home, then legalised through the home foreign ministry, the Saudi embassy and MOFA in the Kingdom, followed by licensed Arabic translation and local notarisation. You also need the MISA investment licence, articles of association, the unified commercial register, and valid ID for both the signatory and the appointed agent.

Does revoking a POA on Najiz also remove Qiwa and Absher access?

No. Revoking the wakala on Najiz cancels the legal authority but does not automatically strip platform-level delegations granted separately in Absher Business, Qiwa or Muqeem. When an agent leaves, revoke the Najiz POA first, then remove each platform delegation individually, and notify your bank in writing since bank mandate files do not auto-sync.

How does the 2026 Commercial Register Law affect company POA management?

From 3 April 2026 the unified national commercial register applies, with IDs starting with 7, no expiry date and an annual confirmation instead of renewal. An overdue annual confirmation can block dependent services including POA issuance. Review any wakala referencing an old-format CR number and re-issue it so counterparties verifying the deed see a matching register.