Q&A OTHER JURISDICTIONS “
This is something that not long ago nobody would have thought would ever happen
How do you arrange effective legal counsel? Depending on the sector, internally the way we would do it is to go to an international law firm. You know they have done it before, they can deal with situations, they can give you the best quality advice. Typically we go to international firms that have done similar projects and then we find local lawyers who have direct experience in the jurisdiction. Most of the time we are simply looking for lawyers who have done this before.
If you look at which countries in Africa have had a sector approach to development you will see South Africa, with its recent renewable energy
programme and Nigeria, which is trying to do something in power, but there are not many more. If governments take a sector approach, in five years’ time it will be the local lawyers who will be able to provide the best legal advice. There are strong local firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ivory Coast; a well-established network of firms in African countries has developed in recent years and these firms are working closely with in- ternational practices. For now, when you are dealing with DFIs and IFIs for example […] you need a lawyer who can say ‘why did you put this clause here’ and who can push back and open discussions on it. The only way you can do this well is if the lawyer has dealt with them before. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you won’t be able to push back as far as the lawyers who have done it before. On a $300 million project or a $600 million project, you need to get the best expertise available. Your agree- ment and legal arrangements need to stand the test of time.
What is the primary attribute you look for in an external legal counsel? Expertise and professionalism. You have to be professional and you have to have direct expertise and depending on the country you are working in you either will or you won’t get it.
Do you prefer hourly rates or fixed fees? Most of the time, we prefer to work on a fixed fee basis. Just from a long term relationship point of view it does not make sense for a law firm to give a very expensive bill or for us not to be flexible, so whenever we work with them we put in a cap – sometimes this is needed – and then beyond the cap you can discuss further if the work is too heavy and the fees need to increase.
Souleymane Keita Investment director
Harith General Partners Johannesburg, South Africa
About the author Souleymane Keita is an investment director at Harith General Partners, the inaugural fundmanager of the $630 million Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF, partnered with the African Development Bank (ADB), Government Employees Pension Fund of South Africa and Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), among others). He has led a range of private and PPP transactions in the ICT, energy and transport fields across Africa. He joined HArith in 2007. Previously he spent five years at AfDB, where he was successively a senior investment officer in the Infrastructure Finance Division, a senior financial analyst and a senior analyst in the Treasury Department. He was involved in a number of projects including a power project in Uganda, water projects in Burkina Faso and Nigeria, and transport programmes in Morocco and Senegal.
ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE | SUB SAHARAN AFRICA 2013 79
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