Ghana is opening up

Many of us will have read the legal sector headlines earlier this year on India opening up its legal market to foreign law firms for the very first time.

These stories are good news for all involved, and indicative of a world that is becoming more sophisticated and interconnected. There is a similar trend in west Africa at the moment, specifically in Ghana.

At the start of June, the UK-Ghana Business Council met in London to boost the £2.2bn trade relationship between the two nations. One output from the meeting was the launch of the UK-Ghana Investor Group, which will identify new investment opportunities and support Ghana’s economic recovery plan. A week later, a delegation of leading Ghanaian law firms and in-house counsel came to the UK to strengthen links with law firms and investors here as part of a visit organised by the Law Society and the Ghana Bar Association.

While not explicitly connected to the UK-Ghana Business Council meeting, the delegation’s visit was not entirely coincidental – it reflects Ghana’s willingness and enthusiasm for engaging with the UK and other countries via legal services and beyond.

Ghana has encountered significant economic hurdles in recent years, but the country seems to be getting back on track. The UK government recently revealed that bilateral trade between the UK and Ghana is now worth around £2.2bn, with the trade in goods and services increasing by £778m between 2021 and 2022. And at a recent international summit, Ghana’s deputy minister of trade and industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, emphasised the importance of establishing cooperation in the area of trade and investment between Ghana and other countries. This was a public announcement of the country’s need and desire for more foreign direct investment from countries such as the UK.

All of this amounts to an invitation: UK companies, dealmakers and lawyers should find as many opportunities to do business with Ghana as possible.

As the head of Charles Russell Speechlys’ Africa desk, I visit the region frequently and am struck by just how much enthusiasm for collaboration with the UK can be found in that continent. I have a strong connection to Ghana personally, having advised clients there for decades, but my parents also worked in the region importing UK manufactured goods there as far back as the 1970s. But while Ghana, and the region more generally, hold a special place in my heart, I can say without bias that it is a region that is growing at pace with plenty of opportunities for collaboration.

Where there is a need for more investment, there is always a conversation to be had around where that money is coming from. For example, our firm has a particularly strong focus and emphasis on private capital – investments and funding by individuals, their families, private and discrete equity – whether through funds or other corporate vehicles. Private capital is an alternative to funds raised via the public markets. The private capital industry was reportedly worth $7.4tn at the end of 2020 and is projected to almost double to $13tn by the end of 2025. It is fair to say that private capital is forming an increasingly significant part of our futures.

Private capital presents a massive opportunity for Ghana. Recent figures from the African Private Capital Association (AVCA) show a meteoric rise in the total volume of private capital deals in Africa – from around just 200 in 2016, to 576 in 2022, a 188% uplift. And while 2022 presented some global economic headwinds (and there have been similar economic headwinds in 2023, such as the Silicon Valley Bank crisis), these are, in all likelihood, short-term shocks.

The AVCA report also points out that 2022 was the ‘highest year on record for deal volumes in Africa in the past 10 years, surpassing the record levels achieved in 2021 and representing a 46% year-over-year increase’, and that the region maintained an impressive track record ‘despite the macroeconomic conditions that affected the second half of 2022’. This is certainly a trend we are witnessing through our own clients doing deals in Ghana and across the continent.

For UK lawyers, the combination of Africa’s investment landscape and Ghana’s open invitation to do more business there offers a rare opportunity for businesses and their advisers to cover new ground together in the region.

Next April, the 2024 UK-African Investment Summit will be held in London and will be attended by a number of high-profile political and business leaders. As more meetings and events like this take place, aimed at fostering collaboration and cross-border working, we encourage as many people to attend them as possible.

Lawyers have a pivotal role to play in facilitating trade and investment between countries. Law, after all, underpins the very fabric of commerce.  

It is vital therefore that UK lawyers at firms like ours have links and relationships with law firms across the continent of Africa, to support clients doing business there who are starting to benefit from these opportunities. There is every chance of practitioners missing a trick on Africa if they are not paying close attention.

Adrian Mayer is a corporate partner at Charles Russell Speechlys and head of the firm’s Africa desk