The relationships era: redefining Africa’s legal frontier

Africa is no longer a market of potential alone. It is a continent of industrial scale, cross-border capital flows and home-grown corporate ambition. Across sectors from energy and financial services to technology and logistics, a new generation of African enterprises is reshaping the commercial landscape, building businesses of global significance from African foundations.

Perhaps no single project illustrates this more vividly than the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos. With a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, it is Africa’s largest refinery and the world’s largest single-train refinery. Having commenced fuel production in 2024, the facility has already exceeded its design capacity and Dangote Industries has announced plans to expand capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day within 30 months, a move that would make it one of the world’s largest refineries by throughput. The refinery has fundamentally altered Nigeria’s downstream oil sector, sharply reducing the country’s historic dependence on imported fuels, easing pressure on foreign exchange reserves and creating the feedstock for a nascent petrochemicals industry.

The Dangote Group itself is emblematic of a broader trend: the rise of large Pan-African corporates with the scale and sophistication to compete globally. 

In financial services, institutions such as Standard Bank, Equity Bank, Nedbank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, and Ecobank are expanding aggressively across the continent, pursuing cross-border acquisitions and building integrated platforms that connect African economies. 

In technology, companies such as Flutterwave, which processes billions of dollars in transactions annually across more than 30 countries, and Paystack, acquired by Stripe in 2020, are building the digital payments infrastructure that underpins cross-border commerce. Safaricom’s M-Pesa platform has transformed financial inclusion across East Africa. Jumia continues to pioneer e-commerce across the continent. These are not start-ups awaiting validation; they are established enterprises generating the complex, multi-jurisdictional transactions that define a maturing market.

Underpinning this corporate growth is a wave of infrastructure investment. 

The EU’s Global Gateway initiative has identified 55 strategic corridors across sub-Saharan Africa, 12 of which are designated as priority corridors, aimed at boosting connectivity and trade. The Lobito Corridor, linking the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to Angola’s Atlantic coast, is attracting major multilateral and private capital. Development finance institutions are deploying record volumes into African energy, transport and digital infrastructure. Submarine cable projects and data centre investments are expanding Africa’s digital backbone, with estimates suggesting the continent’s infrastructure providers need to spend between USD 7 billion and USD 8 billion annually over the period to 2030. Cross-border rail and road projects and investments in new airports, especially in East Africa, are connecting landlocked economies to regional and global markets, while renewable energy developments are opening new investment frontiers across the Sahel, East Africa and southern Africa.

Current global dynamics have fundamentally changed how African countries interact with the world. Geopolitical realignment is driving an increase in transaction-based, regionally focused relationships. Supply chain disruption is creating new avenues for African countries within changing global manufacturing and trade networks. The continent is well positioned: it holds roughly 30% of the world’s mineral reserves, including critical minerals such as cobalt, copper and lithium. African countries are increasingly focused on developing the infrastructure to capture the full economic value of these natural resources domestically, rather than exporting them in raw form.

Kenya stands out

Kenya is a compelling example of a country making strategic progress, deploying a multi-alliance approach focused on economic development and national security. 

On the sidelines of the G7 in June 2026, Kenya and the United States signed a preliminary agreement enabling Kenya to refine its critical mineral resources domestically. Also in June 2026, Kenya signed a USD1.2 billion agreement with the China Road and Bridge Corporation to expand and modernise Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Several other infrastructure projects in ports, roads,  rail and energy have also been announced. Dangote Industries is reported to be considering investing in a new petroleum refinery in East Africa.

During a May 2026 visit from French President Emmanuel Macron, 11 bilateral agreements worth over USD 1 billion were signed between the two countries, focused mainly on transport, logistics, renewable energy and technology infrastructure.

As the East African bloc’s largest economic contributor, Kenya has also been strengthening regional ties by eliminating non-tariff barriers and increasing bilateral trade with neighbouring Tanzania.

Overcoming challenges to make the most of opportunities

The opportunities across Africa are real and accelerating. The International Monetary Fund has highlighted that while global growth has been sluggish, Africa is a key driver of global economic acceleration, led by regional hubs such as East Africa, which, according to the IMF, is expanding at around 6% a year.

The African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook for 2026 further reveals that the continent’s real GDP is expected to grow by an average of 4.2% this year.

Realising the continent's full potential requires that volatility be managed while improving productivity and deepening cross-border integration. Structural challenges demand urgent, workable solutions, including strategies to reduce rising debt levels, close infrastructure gaps and simplify regulatory complexity.

Why relationships are the differentiator

As the complexity and scale of African transactions grow, law firms must fundamentally rethink how they support the process. Legal counsel is most valuable when it goes beyond technical advice to encompass commercial insight and practical problem-solving. In a market where deals increasingly span multiple jurisdictions, regulatory regimes and cultures, legal advisers must contribute meaningfully to their clients’ growth strategies, not merely react to instructions.

The most successful law firms are those that have embedded themselves within their clients' strategic decision-making. This requires a focus on long-term value rather than the billable hour and a sustained investment in understanding each client’s operations, industry dynamics and competitive pressures so that legal insights extend well beyond the immediate mandate. It also requires investment in people and technology, working alongside each other.

Understanding the nuances of individual jurisdictions, including both formal regulatory frameworks and informal practices, is equally vital. No single firm, however large, can replicate this through remote desk research. Genuine collaboration among local law firms, built on deep on-the-ground relationships, is the only way to achieve it effectively. Cross-border lawyer rotations and shared projects are powerful tools for developing talent and strengthening institutional ties. More broadly, trust, transparency, aligned incentives and a decisive move away from a local counsel mindset toward true pan-African partnerships will be the defining differentiators in the years ahead.

The future of law in Africa

This evolution also requires managing the tension between traditional law firm structures and the flexibility demanded by the modern workforce. While hierarchy and structure remain important for quality, governance and client delivery, there is growing demand for flexibility in how and where work is done.

No conversation about the future of law can exclude the role of technology in facilitating these changes. In recent years, artificial intelligence has transformed how law firms research, draft and analyse information. AI is now embedded in daily workflows, improving efficiency and automating routine tasks. The challenge, however, is not simply adoption but successful integration: training AI models on firm-specific data, embedding AI into established workflows and using it to enhance, rather than replace, critical human judgement.

AI has also challenged law firm leaders to reconsider how young lawyers build their foundational skills. New lawyers must be trained to develop the critical judgement needed to evaluate AI-generated outputs, detect biases and manage the risks that AI introduces.

Goldman Sachs has estimated that around 44% of traditional legal tasks could eventually be automated by generative AI, but technology alone will not differentiate law firms in the long term. As adoption becomes universal, the competitive advantage it provides will dissipate and the emphasis will revert to human expertise.

The human qualities inherent in the most successful lawyers - judgement, insight, trust, emotional intelligence, curiosity, adaptability, the ability to spot challenges before they arise, and to build meaningful relationships with clients and colleagues - cannot be automated. Law firms are investing in developing these core skills from the earliest stages of a lawyer’s career.

Firm culture and leadership are equally critical enablers of the client experience. Ultimately, how lawyers behave within firms, how they collaborate, communicate and lead, directly shapes how clients experience the firm.

In an era defined by geopolitical realignment and digital disruption, technology will provide the baseline. But the true differentiator, for law firms and for the businesses they serve, will always be the human capacity to read the room, build trust, and translate complex legal frameworks into the strategic certainty that businesses need to invest and grow. Pan-African law firms with deep, embedded relationships across the continent’s jurisdictions are uniquely positioned to deliver that certainty. 

The firms that will prosper are those that combine technical excellence with genuine commercial partnership and high-skilled lawyering, grounded in the on-the-ground knowledge and trust that only long-term relationships can build.

Paras Shah is the Managing Partner of the Kenyan practice for pan-African law firm Bowmans. He has 25 years' of experience and specialises in corporate and commercial law, banking and finance law, privatisations, M&A, capital markets and real estate law.