In depth
In recent years, GCC sovereign wealth funds and private enterprises have intensified their African investment portfolios with remarkable precision and scale. This surge in cross-continental capital movement now demands a corresponding evolution in dispute resolution mechanisms to address the increasingly complex commercial relationships it creates.
The exponential trajectory of Gulf investment in African markets, evidenced by the UN Economic Commission's reported tenfold increase in renewable energy investments since 2000, will prompt an evolution of dispute resolution frameworks calibrated to this cross-continental reality. With over USD 100 billion deployed across infrastructure, agriculture, technology, and extractive industries, traditional arbitral paradigms will benefit from strategic enhancements addressing the distinctive characteristics of these cross-regional transactions.
While London, Paris, and Geneva continue to offer established jurisprudence and procedural certainty for international disputes, regional alternatives now present increasingly compelling advantages. Dubai has long established itself as a sophisticated arbitration seat with its International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) processing 355 new cases in 2023. Its mature legal infrastructure, multilingual capabilities, and geographical positioning between Africa and Asia create natural advantages for handling cross-regional disputes. In addition, the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) are both common law financial free-zones within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), each offering independent, well-established and competitive seats of arbitration in the UAE as well as broader GCC region.
South Africa presents a compelling value proposition following its International Arbitration Act of 2017. This watershed legislation has significantly enhanced South Africa's arbitration landscape, with Kluwer Arbitration reporting 124 South Africa-seated international arbitrations between 2018- 2023. The Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) offers a good service rivalling international alternatives at a significantly lower cost. The large pool of South African professionals with deep sector-specific expertise in mining, energy, and infrastructure adds substantial value to the AFSA ecosystem, particularly for technically complex GCC-Africa disputes.
The procedural tension between civil law influences in GCC jurisdictions and common law foundations across Africa creates distinctive arbitral dynamics requiring nuanced navigation. Document production exemplifies this divergence: GCC regimes typically favour more circumscribed disclosure while African common law jurisdictions permit a more expansive discovery. Dubai and Johannesburg-seated tribunals increasingly demonstrate sophisticated hybridisation of these approaches. This interplay between the civil and common law legal systems are of particular relevance in Dubai for example, where, as mentioned above, Dubai offers both a civil law as well as common law jurisdiction (through the DIFC).
Across the continent, other African jurisdictions have similarly strengthened their arbitration capabilities. Tanzania's Arbitration Act of 2020, Nigeria's Arbitration and Mediation Act of 2023, and Mauritius' revitalised International Arbitration Centre demonstrate a decisive continental pivot toward viable GCC-Africa dispute forums. The Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA) further supplements this landscape with its longstanding expertise in commercial matters involving both African and Middle Eastern parties. CRCICA recently modernised its arbitration rules in 2024, responding to the continuously evolving arbitration landscape in the GCC. Furthermore, the Egyptian Centre for Arbitration and Settlement of Non-Banking Financial Disputes (ECAS), established in 2019, focuses on the resolution of non-banking financial disputes (such as capital markets, insurance and fin-tech disputes) through arbitration and other alternative disputes resolution mechanisms. Riyadh's emergence through the Saudi Centre for Commercial Arbitration's modernisation initiatives further reshapes the competitive landscape, with particular strength in energy, mining and infrastructure - sectors where Saudi entities maintain substantial African investments.
These regional centres deliver decisive advantages through arbitrators possessing granular understanding of both regions' commercial practices, regulatory frameworks, and enforcement mechanisms. This dual-region expertise proves invaluable in renewable energy, mining and infrastructure disputes where technical complexity intersects with evolving regulatory landscapes across multiple jurisdictions.
The forward trajectory suggests formal alliances between GCC and African arbitration institutions - following precedents established in response to China-Africa trade, most prominently by the China-Africa Joint Arbitration Centre (CAJAC) and the more recent NIAC-HKIAC alliance. Structured collaboration between Dubai and Johannesburg or Riyadh and Lagos, for example, would create institutional frameworks specifically calibrated to the distinctive characteristics of GCC-Africa commercial relationships.
The future likely includes complementary roles for both traditional European seats and these regional alternatives, with sophisticated parties increasingly selecting forums based on transaction-specific characteristics rather than historical defaults. The increasingly sophisticated arbitration ecosystem linking Gulf capital with African markets represents a strategic inflection point in cross regional commerce - one that will reward those who recognise early that in the evolving GCC-Africa relationship, where capital flows, justice must follow and be seen to follow.
