The OHADA Permanent Secretariat organized in Dakar (Senegal), King Fahd Hotel, from 22 to 25 February 2016, a sub regional workshop for the dissemination of innovative legal provisions in the OHADA Uniform Acts.

Organized with the financial support of the World Bank Group, the workshop brought together 130 participants from Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Mali. These participants were from various legal professions and professional bodies that make use of the OHADA law, namely judges, lawyers, notaries, bailiffs, court clerks, bankers, employers' representatives, chambers of commerce, and approved management centers.

The workshop comprised two related sessions: the first session focused on structures exercising economic activities and the second, on credit environment. The aim was to remedy the inadequate use of several legal provisions contained in Uniform Acts which, if better applied, could improve the comfort of economic actors as well as the ranking of OHADA Member States in various Doing Business reports. Apart from the various Uniform Acts, the revised Rules of Procedure and the Rules of Arbitration of CCJA were revisited in a fully interactive approach and with a focus on specific themes such as: the status of business start up, corporate governance, comparative study of a limited liability company and the new OHADA joint stock company, cooperative societies register and RCCM, the new regulation relating to legal agents in the Uniform Act on Insolvency, conciliation and simplified collective proceedings, improved access to CCJA ...

Although the Dakar workshop was naturally in line with the activities for the dissemination and promotion of OHADA law, it specifically aimed at ensuring the continuing improvement of the investment legal framework in a bid to create an even more efficient private sector, condition sine qua non for economic growth and human development. The workshop, facilitated by renowned academics and practitioners, helped provide participants with the tools necessary for optimal use of innovative provisions in the OHADA law.

Still with a view to encourage the effective ownership of the potential offered by the OHADA normative arsenal and stimulate the adoption, by stakeholders and users of OHADA law, of practices conducive for improvement of the business environment, the Permanent Secretariat plans to organize other workshops in the coming weeks into other Member States.

The Permanent Secretary takes this opportunity to thank the Governments of the States that kindly authorized the holding of these workshops and the World Bank Group whose financial support was crucial.

The Permanent Secretary,
Prof. Dorothé C. SOSSA