How Corporate Law Has Shifted in West Africa
Preventing financial risks is of upmost importance for businesses and ensuring stability remains throughout the corporation requires many things to be perfected; perfecting contracts, running contractual audits and ensuring you are up to date on tax legislation are all art of the lengthy process. This month we speak with Any-G. Ika Raymond, who reveals how his legal assistance stand out to meet his client’s corporate needs.
How do you ensure that your legal assistance is versatile and stands out from the rest?
After 22 years of legal practice I have come to a point that makes me apprehend the “science” of legal advisory on a different angle. In a normal world, people generally seek advice from wise men or wise women. You never seek advice from an unconscious or a silly man or from an ignorant. The legal adviser must consider himself as that wise man who provides useful advice in order to meet the specific needs of a client. While giving advice, the wise man will be prudent, concise and sharp. In that perspective, we always take into account issues like tax and all business-related aspects of our client’s project when providing corporate law advice.
Corporate law cases can mean big losses for your clients, how do you consider their needs and the legal action needed?
The ultimate goal when providing legal advice is to anticipate all risks inherent to the client’s project by making the provisions in the contract clear, simple and not subject to misinterpretations. The recourse to arbitration when permissible is highly appreciated.
What are the biggest challenges regarding corporate tax law and how do you guarantee you overcome those challenges?
The biggest challenges associated with corporate tax law remain to be the complexity of the tax assessment and filing mechanisms, and the proliferation of government tax audits these last five years causing fiscal tension. In order to mitigate the side effects of this, we run informal contractual audits to detect possible fiscal risk, issue spontaneous flash news on changes in tax legislation that directly affects our clients’ businesses, and we also conduct tax optimisation processes to distress fiscal tension.
Throughout your years of experience, how has African financial corporate law shifted? Are there any changes you would want to see help your clients?
African financial corporate law has not changed much in the last ten years. However, some “cold” reforms have been made in some areas during recent corporate law changes, in particular in the area of financial securities regulations. The idea was to take into account obstacles met by counsels and companies when doing business in the OHADA countries by passing laws that are more business friendly. Those law integrates some Anglo-Saxon concepts of the financial law.
Your firm counsels across a range of many offices; how do you keep consistent service throughout these, and diversify efforts throughout your teams?
We are taking advantage of the African uniform business law, also termed as OHODA, by putting in place an integrated approach of business counseling. We worked over the years in order to put in place a customised legal service, by creating unprecedented international legal resources and by hunting high profile legal specialists with strong knowledge of the local constraints in the legal practice industries and the local environment (legal, economy and political) as a whole in each jurisdiction we cover.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your role?
As a conductor of the orchestra, it is my duty to make sure the performance indicators we have internally agreed is constantly monitored and implemented for the benefit of our clients.
Any-G. Ika Raymond, LL.M, JSD, PgDip, MCIArb
Counselor at Law/Tax Adviser
Partner
6, rue Cannas sur Jasmins, Cocody Danga
Any.raymond@anyraypartners.com
www.anyraypartners.com
Tel: +225 22 444 524
(U.S); +229 65 590 600
Ika Raymond Any-Gbayere has more than twenty years of experience out of which five were spent with PricewaterhouseCoopers and eight years with Unilever Cote d’Ivoire.
With PwC Ika R. Any-Gbayere respectively held the position of senior tax consultant and Tax manager responsible for oil, mining and financial activities. He supervised several mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, tax reviews and compliance works for a number of multinational companies. He advised international clients on investment projects and cross borders corporate and financial deals.
With Unilever, he supervised the merger of three companies (out of which was one listed Company), handled liquidations, take over and disposals within the group. Being the Executive Board Secretary of Unilever Francophone Africa and the corporate counsel of the group, he advised the company officers on several corporate and tax matters and participated in the company general strategy.
Ika R. Any-Gbayere graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (USA) and from the University of Queen Marry in London (UK) where he received respectively an LL.M degree and a PgDip in International Commercial Arbitration. He also holds a post graduate degree in Business law from the University of Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire and a Certificate in English law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Ika R. Any-Gbayere is currently member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators of London and tax lecturer at the University of Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire.
AnyRay&Partners is a corporate advisory law firm that focuses its practice on corporate law, tax, finance, business reorganisations and corporate deals. The firm is guided by the principles of excellence and professionalism and has established a strong regional and international network in order to meet the needs of its clients.
The firm’s main clients are multinational corporations involved in telecommunications, industrial, banking and financial activities as well as private and state-owned entities. The firm’s main international clients are US, UK and South African corporations as well as US leading law firms involved in complex corporate and financial projects in the region.
