CRCICA was represented by Dr. Mohamed Hafez, Counsel and Legal Advisor to the Director of the CRCICA, at the webinar-based event titled “International Arbitration: Regional Perspectives, Africa” hosted by Shoosmiths LLP that took place on Wednesday 10 March 2021.

The event was chaired by Johanne Cox, Partner & Head of International Arbitration at Shoosmiths, with four principal speakers: Des Williams (Director & Head of Arbitration Practice, Werkmans- South Africa); Ngozi Efobi (Partner, Aelex- Nigeria); David Asiedu (Partner- ENSafrica, Ghana) and Dr. Mohamed Hafez (Egypt).

Each panelist was asked to discuss from the perspective of its home country the following points (Des Williams discussed South Africa, Ngozi Efobi discussed Nigeria and Dr. Mohamed Hafez discussed Egypt and made a specific emphasis on CRCICA):

1. A snapshot of your country – population, key industries/sectors/resources, languages spoken, GDP, etc.,
2. An overview of arbitration in your country,
3. Which is the main arbitral institution? When was it established? How many cases have been registered in the past few years? Any other interesting stats?
4. What type of arbitrations are most common e.g. commercial and investment arbitrations; which sectors/industries?
5. Is arbitration a growth area?
6. How has COVID affected arbitration?
7. Are the courts arbitration friendly?
8. Anything in particular to have in mind when arbitrating especially with an eye to enforcement?
9. Any recent developments of interest? and
10. Regional cooperation.

The Webinar was very successful with several participants attending and in its conclusion a handful of questions were asked from the participants upon which the panelists were more than happy to respond to.