The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) has announced a series of changes to the leadership and membership of its Legal & Regulatory (L&R) Committee.

Folake Elias-Adebowale, Partner at Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, and Rafik Mzah, Chief Legal Officer at AfricInvest, have been appointed as the new Co-Chairs of the Committee, as Mara Topping, Partner at White & Case, and Solomon Wifa, Partner at Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher finished their mandate after four years in the role.

Joining the Committee this year as new members are Andrew Chvatal, General Counsel at Abraaj, Marina Fariba, Assistant General Counsel at Actis, Roddy McKean, Director at Anjarwalla & Khanna, Nicole Paige, Partner at Webber Wentzel, and Mohammed Uteem, Founder and Head of Uteem Chambers.

The L&R Committee was launched in 2012 with a mandate to assist AVCA members and other industry stakeholders in navigating the often complex legal and regulatory landscapes of different African countries in order to advance private investment in Africa.

The Committee, under the leadership of Mara Topping and Solomon Wifa, has delivered on its mandate by facilitating several legal training courses for private equity professionals, and by ‎developing AVCA-branded legal templates designed to harmonize private equity legal documentation throughout the continent.

The Committee has also published a series of Private Equity Legal & Regulatory Guides for multiple African countries.

The Country Guides provide foreign investors and managers in Africa with insight into the legal and regulatory environment.

Each Guide is prepared by a team of local lawyers with a depth of expertise in the selected country, and addresses common investor considerations, including formation of business entities, corporate governance, creditor protections, exit options, taxation, remedial action, regulatory environment and intellectual property protections.

Going forward, the Committee will continue to build on its achievements by expanding its training offerings, developing additional AVCA-branded sample transactional document templates, and generating legal and regulatory guides for ‎countries not yet covered.

Folake Elias-Adebowale and Rafik Mzah said: “We are honoured to serve as co-Chairs of AVCA’s Legal & Regulatory Committee. Our predecessors have shown great commitment and exceptional dedication over the last four years and it is our intention to build on their momentum by continuing to implement innovative and value-added ways of providing AVCA members with a better knowledge of the legal and regulatory framework in each country in Africa.”