International Banking & Finance – Senegal – Dr Allessie Franck Olivier

SCP Houda et Associés is a leading full-service law firm. Founded in 1977 in Senegal, our firm has extensive experience in the incorporation of foreign companies and, in general, legal assistance and representation before the courts.

With 45 years’ experience, the firm has the capacity to defend all types of litigation, and can call on a full team of lawyers and advisers to assist and defend its clients’ interests. It also represents local and foreign clients in a wide range of sectors, including multinationals, investment funds, loan officers and trading companies.

The team is organised around an Advisory Department and a Litigation Department. The Advisory Department is divided into: Corporate, Banking & Finance, Tax, Employment, Project Finance, PPP, Oil & Gas, Energy, Data Protection, IP/IT and Telecoms. Meanwhile, the firm assists such clients as private companies, public entities and individuals with all of their legal needs, as well as WAEMU Member States.

I joined SCP Houda & Associés in 2019 as a Senior Legal Counsel. My expertise lies mainly in public business law, public and private contracts (public procurement, public service delegations, PPPs and corporate contracts) that I acquired during my professional career in Europe, as well as on the African continent. Regarding my background, I have a PHD in Law & Political Science and am a member of the TOP SOLIDARITY Association, as well as the association Les cartésiens docteurs et doctorants de Paris.

In addition, I advise public bodies (States, public establishments and local authorities), major companies, investors and lenders, and have extensive experience in project and PPP financing.

I am also involved in legal assistance assignments in sectors as diverse and varied as banking, finance, industry and commerce on the African continent.

We support a diverse and varied client portfolio and are a full-service firm. Our work mainly consists of coordinating lenders’ local counsel, as well as instructing lenders’ local counsel to advise on the following:

– review of the Facility Agreement and other English law-governed finance documents from a local law perspective;
– preparation/review of any local legal conditions precedent documentation, including approvals/authorisations and advising as to compliance with any required public procurement processes; and
– issuance of any required local law capacity opinions.

We also carry out more extensive due diligence assignments to enable the lender to ensure the borrower is reliable and complies with the rules applicable in the jurisdiction, in order to avoid any potential risks that may arise.

Our firm specialises in project finance and public law, focusing on the energy, infrastructure and transport sectors (ports, airports, desalination and irrigation). We also assist governments, public authorities, sponsors and lenders with their various projects.

Moreover, the firm has developed recognised experience in foreign investment in the industrial and real estate sectors, particularly in the structuring and negotiation of complex industrial agreements or contracts for the construction of public or private works in the WAEMU zone and the Maghreb (industrial estates, hospitals, universities, shopping centres, hotels, etc.).

The firm is involved in the mining and oil & gas sectors, and regularly assists international operators and public entities in the MENA region.

In banking & finance, we participated both as local counsel to foreign entities and as independent counsel to several clients in 2023. We concluded dozens of credit agreements in excess of hundreds of millions of euros on behalf of local, community and international banks, including investment funds and multilateral development banks. This has helped to consolidate our position as one of the leading law firms in Senegal through the awards and recognition we have received from our peers.

Despite the difficulties that can arise on a daily basis in the business, we have always managed to work, and continue to assist our customers. Since COVID-19, the main crises we have experienced from a professional, political and social point of view are: the violent political demonstrations between the government in power at the time and the opposition, wherein we were often obliged to close our offices and give priority to teleworking; the internal conflicts in the rest of the WAEMU zone and the various coups d’état that followed one another, imposing sanctions linked to the free movement of people and goods, etc.; as well as reappraisal of the FCFA currency.

Thanks to the technological tools we have continued to develop within our structure to satisfy our customers, we have introduced more flexible working methods, particularly in regard to teleworking.

We have also been confronted with a lack of financial means of certain partners for the payment of fees; however, we have always arrived at a solution.

As mentioned above, we have experienced these problems at both the national and community level. However, what was happening at the international level, particularly with the war in Ukraine, was deeply concerning to us. There is no doubt that all of the links in the chain – including us as lawyers – were very worried about the future of our business. We had noted a drop in business during this period of international tension, but the firm had put in place a mechanism to deal with the economic shock that could arise and affect the entity’s finances. Overall, we continued our activities with diligence, respect for ethics and the hope that all these problems would be resolved quickly so that we could return to this global village and the continued development of FDI in our territories.

At WAMU level, the main segments of the financial sphere impacted by FinTech activities are payment and financing services. The FinTech-type initiatives observed in the Union in the area of payment services primarily concern activities related to electronic money, which have been governed by a BCEAO text since 2006.

In addition, private virtual money initiatives have been announced in WAMU, although no activity has been recorded to date. Infrastructures have been developed, but despite the recent opening of the 4G licence and the recent reduction in tariffs, there is a lack of competitive tariffs to ensure that Internet use takes off quickly.

Some FinTech potential for financial inclusion in our territories that could change the current pattern:

– Increasing reach. Digital channels make it possible to overcome physical infrastructure constraints to access a wide range of financial products (payment, savings, insurance, investment and credit services), and mobile phones provide access to essential services, such as water and electricity through pay-per-use services.
– Improving customer information. The digital identity and data footprints generated by the use of digital services (including mobile phones, electronic payments, e-commerce and social media) provide the customer with the information required to open accounts and access a range of financial products and services (reducing asymmetric customer information).
– Ensuring the sustainability of the offer through lower costs. The inclusion of unserved and underserved populations requires the provision of a large volume of payments, deposits, insurance products and low-value loans, tailored to customers’ needs. FinTech solutions can help reduce costs and ensure sustainable access to financial services.

Yes, undeniably.

We are a full-service law firm that works in three international languages: English, Spanish and French. This is a considerable asset, especially as the vast majority of our international cases are drafted or handled in English.

We also have a multi-disciplinary, competent and available team ready to respond to clients with diligence, competence and responsiveness. This is a team with international experience, coming for the most part from international structures of all kinds.

These non-exhaustive elements are highly valued by international partners when they decide to entrust their projects to local law firms.

Senegal is the theatre for the implementation of international investments in the region. Foreign investors are keen to develop projects in a wide variety of sectors. We also note that these investors are highly diverse, and are no longer recruited solely from the list of investors from colonising countries. However, many international projects are still being developed, financed and implemented by foreign entities to the detriment of local companies. It is true that in the context of public procurement, the State has sought to involve its local or community businesses in the award and execution of public contracts (PPPs or public procurement contracts). But there is still a lot to be done to raise the profile of our local businesses and involve them actively in the development of major infrastructure projects.

We are a liberal and independent profession, but also a collaborative one. In spite of standardised texts – such as certain UEMOA texts in the banking sector, payment services, money laundering, etc. and those of OHADA – we have modern tools that enable us to deal with complex issues concerning operators abroad, and we benefit from the expertise of our colleagues in the jurisdictions concerned to enable us to cover the legal, practical and local issues raised.

Our aim is to continue to assist our clients and successfully complete the projects entrusted to us. Our registration with the Senegal and Ivory Coast Bars enables us to cover the WAEMU area; meanwhile, our Abidjan office continues to expand with the help of our staff and our customers, who continue to place their trust in us.

Recently, we were informed of a major reform of the legislation governing the banking/financial sector in our region. This overhaul is directly in line with the international changes and developments that are impacting our sub-region, but also with the opportunities that the authorities in place want for their peoples and for the harmonious development of our territories – as well as the development of the business climate and incentives for entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, interoperability and FDI.

A draft uniform law on banking regulations has been adopted by the WAEMU Council of Ministers, and the uniform law still needs to be transposed into the laws of each of the eight WAEMU member countries.