Douala: Lawyers hone skills on revised OHADA Uniform Act.

The new Uniform Act as stated by intergovernmental organisation for legal integration, organises two simple legal procedures which a creditor may implement to compel its debtor to honour its commitment. 

These are the injunction to pay and the injunction to deliver or return a property, legally referred to as recovery procedures and enforcement measures.

It was adopted after the last Council of Ministers of OHADA that held on October 16-17, 2023 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The said Uniform Act entered into force on February 16, 2024. The act, it was said, has already been translated into English by the OHADA Secretariat

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the seminar in Douala, Barrister Ngoulla Fotso Arlette, noted that law, just like any other field, evolves with time. 

She hammered on the need for continuous training for lawyers to keep up with recent developments.

The revered legal luminary said it was her pleasure to have seen the need, bring experts in the domain who may not always be reachable at the disposal of the new generation of lawyers. 

She expressed the hope that at the end of the training, the participants will have a landmark of knowledge and references to turn to in rendering their job. 

Bringing many innovations, the new Uniform Act consecrates a decisive improvement in the legal framework for debt recovery and forced execution in OHADA member countries. It marks a major qualitative leap.

The president of the Cameroon Union of Young Lawyers, Barrister Agbor Nkongho, in his remarks, said knowledge of the uniform act is a key to every investment in OHADA member states. 

"Innovations we have today in the OHADA works alongside with the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. So, mastering the act is a key to practice law. Lawyers will be up to date with the new amendments in recovery procedures," he said. 

Investors, he went on, usually ask security questions as to how they can recover money when business goes wrong. However, he added, if the law can provide security to investors, then they will bring their money.

"We need to create a certain level of certainty, security in our country. Law, like every human activity, evolves with time. Today we have lots of other areas like FINTECH, social media; how to you reconcile with the new era. So the new law comes to address these lapses that did not obtain in the former law," Barrister Agbor added 

Barrister Agbor Nkongho noted that after the workshop, they will then understand differences between which courts have jurisdiction over what issue, and the more it will be applied, the more they will learn. 

He congratulated the Barrister Ngoulla Fotso and co for taking a step to ensure that the lawyers are standardised.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0: 3158 of Thursday July 4, 2024