Home/Insights
Insights
Commentary on the policy, legal and commercial questions we are asked most often. These are general perspectives on the region, not advice on any specific matter.
The AfCFTA is not a single market yet — and your entry plan should say so
Ratification is not implementation. What actually changes at a West African border today, why the forty-five-year-old ECOWAS scheme is the better guide to expectations, and how to model the gap between treaty text and customs post.
Reading an election cycle: a working framework for operators
Most electoral risk analysis stops at who wins. The variables that actually hit operations are procedural and fiscal, they run on a longer clock than the ballot, and they are far more forecastable than the result.
OHADA in practice: what uniform law solves, and what it leaves to the registry clerk
Seventeen states, one commercial code, one supreme court in Abidjan — and a persistent gap between the harmonised text and how it is administered in each capital.
Local content rules are a strategy problem, not a legal one
Treating local content as a box to tick produces brittle structures that fail diligence and create bribery exposure. Treating it as supply-chain development produces a position you can defend when the rules tighten.
Five reasons counterparty diligence fails in frontier markets
A clean screening report often means the vendor's sources did not reach the jurisdiction, not that there was nothing to find. The failure modes are consistent, and all five are avoidable.
Want these when they publish?
We do not run a marketing list. If you would like to be sent new pieces directly, say so in an enquiry and we will add you.