AFCFTA: RECONNOITERING THE LAW ON ARBITRATION TOWARDS THE RESOLUTION OF COMMERCIAL DISPUTES IN AFRICA

Abstract

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA), which commenced trading activities on 1 January 2021, is adjudged the largest free trade area in the world since the formation of the World Trade Organisation. One of the cardinal objectives of this important trade agreement is to engender cooperation on all trade-related areas with a potential to lift over thirty million people out of extreme poverty on the African continent. This commendable objective would undoubtedly, attract an increased growth and development in commercial activities and indeed, witness exponentially, commercial disputes in Africa. Therefore, achieving full AFCFTA potentials is largely contingent on entrenching significant policy reforms and trade facilitation procedures, including establishing a mechanism for the settlement of disputes concerning rights and obligations. This is where the exploration of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism for the amicable resolution of commercial disputes within the framework of AFCFTA becomes extremely important. Thus, with the adoption of doctrinal research method, this intervention aimed to strengthen arbitration laws and institutions for effective resolution of commercial disputes in Africa. The work found that as most conventional legal systems fail to provide remedies that are timely, adequate and just, majority are resorting to informal means of justice and arbitration is increasingly becoming popular and acceptable means of resolving commercial disputes on the African continent. In this regard, it is recommended, inter alia, that the needless intervention of the courts to whittle down the cherished party autonomy deportment of the arbitration process should be curtailed through legislative procedures in Africa.