Under the initiative of the Centre for Advanced Corporate Insolvency Law of the University of Pretoria, South Africa and the Centre for Commercial Law of University College London, United Kingdom a one-day colloquium on the development of insolvency law in Africa on the theme “African Insolvency Law: Bridging the Gap to Modern Perspectives” has been held at the Centre for Advanced Corporate Insolvency Law of the University of Pretoria, in Pretoria, South Africa, on the 24th September 2014.

With the presence of jurists, university professors and students, the colloquium has provided a very useful insight on the new developments of insolvency law in Africa.

A session devoted to the OHADA Insolvency Law has been organized, with the following two presentations:

• Overview of the OHADA law (20 minutes), Professor Salvatore MANCUSO, Chair, Centre for Comparative Law in Africa, University of Cape Town, Faculty of Law, South Africa.
• Focus on the problems that led to the OHADA reforms (20 minutes), Mr. Craig GIESZE, Senior Operations Officer, Investment Climate Advisory Services, World Bank.

Professor Salvatore MANCUSO, made a general presentation of the OHADA system of insolvency law, emphasizing the achievements of the business law unification process undertaken in Africa through OHADA.

Mr. Craig GIESZE, Senior Operations Officer, Investment Climate Advisory Services, World Bank, gave the rationale behind the process of revision and update of the uniform act on insolvency law, presenting the different approaches to the reform and illustrating the different areas where the reform will take place.

The presentations captured a lot the interest of the audience: several questions have been made to which the presenters gave adequate answers.

For more information please contact:

Professor Salvatore MANCUSO
Email: Salvatore.Mancuso@uct.ac.za.