ESQ Legal Practice Magazine JUNE 2014 EDITION | Page 40

AFRICA ON
THE GLOBAL
ARBITRATION
MAP: ARE WE TRULY
PREPARED?

Babatunde Fagbohunlu SAN

With a growing awareness among lawyers, judges and business organisations, on the role of
arbitration in commercial dispute resolution and legal risk management; court annexed ADR
facilities are now being established across Africa, Arbitration Centers are gaining popularity
and judges now undergo formal arbitration trainings.
In this interview, Babatunde Fagbohunlu, SAN reviews Africa's position on the Arbitration map
and the preparedness for international Arbitration.

A

re African
centres truly
prepared to
compete for
international
arbitration
work?
A few jurisdictions in subSaharan Africa have certainly
positioned themselves to
compete favourably with
London, Paris, Geneva, and
40 I EsQ legal practice

New York for certain types of
international arbitration work.
The question is “what types of
international arbitration
work”? In my view there are
two categories of international
arbitration work that subSaharan African jurisdictions
will be better placed to handle,
given economies of scale and
other factors. One category
will be disputes arising from

regional trade, commerce and
investments between African
countries. The other one,
perhaps to a lesser extent, will
be disputes arising from
regional trade, commerce and
investments between Africa
and countries outside Africa.
I will identify those SubSaharan jurisdictions as Lagos,
Mauritius, Kigali and Accra.
There have been significant

positive reforms of laws and
institutions in these jurisdictions.
What trends can you identify
in the growth of Arbitration
in Africa?
The first will be what I have
already referred to, the
significant positive reforms of
laws and institutions in certain

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