By Omar FaFa M’Bai
The Africa–UAE Economic Forum in Dubai on Thursday 18th and Saturday 20th December 2025, convened at a critical moment in Africa’s economic trajectory. With capital seeking stability, predictability, and credible legal protection, the forum offered an opportunity to confront one of the most persistent barriers to investment in Africa i.e. the perception that the continent lacks secure and reliable legal frameworks for foreign investment.
In my presentation at the Forum, titled “A Secure Legal Framework for Investment in Africa,” I addressed this perception directly. My central argument was neither rhetorical nor aspirational. It was grounded in law, jurisprudence, and lived institutional experience i.e. Africa today possesses legal frameworks that are not only adequate for investment, but increasingly comparable to those of mature markets. What lags is not the law, but the narrative.
Investment flows not to regions of perfection, but to jurisdictions where risk is measurable, and rights are enforceable. This is a truth long recognised in common-law jurisprudence. Lord Bingham of Cornhill remarked that “the rule of law is not merely a moral ideal, it is a foundation for economic growth.” Capital responds to certainty, not sentiment.
African states have understood this principle for decades. As a result, most African legal systems are rooted in well-established common law or civil law traditions, shaped by constitutional supremacy, statutory clarity, and judicial precedent. These systems are familiar to investors from the Gulf, Europe, and Asia, and they operate within legal vocabularies that international counsel readily understand.
Contrary to popular belief, Africa’s investment regimes are neither fragmented nor improvised. Across the continent, investors encounter:
a) constitutional guarantees of property rights and access to justice.
b) investment promotion statutes ensuring non-discrimination and protection against unlawful expropriation.
c) modern company, insolvency, and securities legislation.
d) arbitration laws aligned with the UNCITRAL Model Law, and
e) widespread adherence to the New York Convention on the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.
These frameworks are not theoretical. They are invoked daily by investors, financiers, and regulators. As A.V. Dicey once said that the rule of law demands that rights be determined by ordinary courts applying known laws. Africa’s courts increasingly do exactly that.
At the Forum, I emphasised that the true test of any legal system lies not in its statutes, but in its judgments. African courts have demonstrated time and again that they are willing to enforce contractual and proprietary rights, including against the state itself.
The case of Luis Díaz de Losada v Government of The Gambia 1980, offers a powerful illustration. When the government reneged on its contractual obligations to a foreign company, the courts upheld the rule of law and granted relief. The judgment echoed a principle articulated centuries earlier by Blackstone “ubi jus, ibi remedium” where there is a right, there must be a remedy.
This was not an anomaly. Similar judicial confidence can be found in Ghanaian courts enforcing foreign arbitral awards, Kenyan courts affirming access to justice for foreign companies, and Nigerian courts protecting commercial rights in complex cross-border disputes. These decisions send a clear signal that Africa’s courts are not passive observers, they are active guarantors of legal certainty.
Another point underscored during my presentation was Africa’s quiet but significant success in arbitration. The continent now hosts reputable arbitral institutions in Cairo, Kigali, Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg, and Mauritius. These centres administer disputes involving multinational investors and sovereign entities, operating under internationally accepted rules.
Equally important is the evolving posture of African courts toward arbitration. Rather than undermining arbitral autonomy, courts increasingly support it, enforcing awards and limiting intervention. This alignment between courts and arbitration enhances investor confidence and reinforces Africa’s credibility as a dispute-resolution-ready investment destination.
The Forum also provided space to address, candidly, concerns about corruption. No jurisdiction is immune from governance challenges, and Africa is no exception. However, to conflate the existence of corruption with the absence of legal protection is a fundamental analytical error.
As Justice Chukwudifu Oputa stated, “Justice is not a one-way traffic.” Across Africa, anti-corruption legislation, procurement reforms, judicial review, Commissions of Inquiries, and regulatory enforcement continue to strengthen accountability. Investors who operate transparently and structure their engagements properly do so within systems increasingly capable of protecting lawful interests.
A recurring theme in my Forum presentation was that legal certainty is a shared responsibility. Africa’s laws are strongest and most effective when investors engage with them in a disciplined and principled manner, through rigorous legal and commercial due diligence, precise and unambiguous contractual drafting, the adoption of credible and enforceable dispute-resolution mechanisms, and importantly, the appointment of a reputable, honest, conscientious and integrity-driven local partners while maintaining full respect for applicable regulatory and compliance processes.
Where investors do so, Africa’s legal systems respond predictably. Where they do not, disappointment is often misattributed to the law rather than to avoidable structural weaknesses.
The Africa–UAE Economic Forum marked more than a dialogue, it marked a recalibration. The message emerging from the discussions and from my presentation in particular, is unmistakable and that is Africa is no longer a frontier defined by legal uncertainty, but a market defined by evolving legal confidence.
The continent does not ask investors to suspend caution. It asks them to reassess assumptions. Its legal frameworks are written, tested, and enforced. Its courts adjudicate. Its arbitral awards are recognised. The law, increasingly, works.
It is time for investment decisions about Africa to be guided not by inherited perceptions, but by contemporary legal reality.
About the Author
Omar FaFa M’Bai is a legal practitioner, governance advocate, and a parent based in Dubai, UAE. He writes regularly on institutional integrity, leadership, law and education across Africa, Middle East and Asia.
