Африка

Port of Antwerp, major trading and logistic hub to and from Africa

Antwerp is known worldwide as the European distribution hub,a position it owns due to its excellent connectivity with overseas destinations and the European hinterland and its strategic location close to the principal European production and consumption centers.  

This interconnectivity instigates Antwerp to become a major strategic partner in the development of the “One Belt One Road” development strategy launched by China at the end of 2013.  

This project aims to create a “New Silk Road” linking Europe and the Middle East with the economic centers of China and other countries in South-East Asia and around the Indian Ocean (EURASIA) and an ocean-going part with Antwerp as a major trading and logistic hub to and from Africa.

Why trade with or invest in Africa ?

Africa is the second largest and fastest growing continent.

Africa comprehends 54 countries.

Doing business in Africa should be considered in the light of the guiding vision of the African Union (AU) :“An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena.”

The law in Africa is a diverse mix of common law, customary law (like the Xeer law), civil law and religious law systems.

Besides South Africa, the law of South Africa and in particular its civil and common law elements, also forms the basis of the law of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

In 1993 seventeen West and Central African nations adopted OHADA.(Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo)

OHADA is the French acronym for "Organisation pour l'Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires", which translates into English as "Organisation for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa".

OHADA was created with the objective of fostering economic development in West and Central Africa. Its objective is to create a better investment climate so as to attract investment in order to foster more growth in this market which includes 225 Million of Africans.

As a West and Central African initiative to harmonize business laws and adopt implementing institutions, OHADA aimed to find alternative solutions to the lack of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa - a region which has challenged and puzzled development economists for several decades.

The stated purpose of the initiative is to facilitate and encourage both domestic and foreign investment in the member states, and seeing as how most of the participating countries are former French colonies, they draw chiefly on a modernized French legal model to achieve their goals.

The laws promulgated by OHADA are exclusively business-related. The OHADA treaty has created a supranational court to ensure uniformity and consistent legal interpretations across the member countries, and the French influence in court proceedings is apparent.

By now, the OHADA has adopted multiple uniform acts: General Commercial Law, Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups, Secured Transactions Law, Debt Resolution Law, Insolvency Law, Arbitration Law, Harmonization of Corporate Accounting, Contracts for the Carriage of Goods, Cooperatives Companies Law.

International Law Firm

With the presence of African lawyers and A-Law’s Managing Partner Dirk De Beule acting as representative of OHADA in Antwerp, Belgium, A-Law attorneys in-house knowledge of Africa legal systems creates value for A-Law customers.