INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 1/3LY
ARBITRATION IN AFRICA – COMPARING REGIONAL APPROACHES
Africa is witnessing unprecedented levels of investment and growth. Its construction, mobile technology, energy and natural resources industries (among others) are booming and investors from diverse locations, both inside and outside the continent, are competing for a stake in its burgeoning enterprises. Higher incidence of commercial (and investor-state) disputes is an inevitable corollary of this increased economic activity, particularly in circumstances where the local court systems have not yet enjoyed the confidence of foreign users. In response, and facilitated by the growth of inter-regional economic communities, trade bodies and governments are developing mechanisms to enable the resolution of business disputes without recourse to local courts or to slower and more expensive international forums. This new market in dispute resolution is inventing itself from scratch as people recognise that dispute resolution services are set to play an increasingly important economic role across the continent. In this article Maurice Kenton, partner at Clyde & Co, surveys the African dispute resolution scene and takes a more in-depth look at developments in Rwanda, Mauritius, Kenya and Nigeria. In the course of his investigations Maurice spoke to Bernadette Uwicyeza, Secretary General of the Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC), Rwanda; Duncan Bagshaw, Registrar of the Mauritius International Arbitration Centre (LCIA-MIAC); Lawrence Ngugi, Acting Registrar of the Nairobi Centre for International Arbitration, Kenya (NCIA); and Funke Adekoya of ÆLEX, a commercial and litigation law firm in Nigeria.
BY MAURICE KENTON, PARTNER AT CLYDE & CO
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