Leading female lawyer, Adekoya joins governing board of ICCA

Nigeria’s Female legal icon and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olufunke Adekoya, has once again added to her growing list of achievements and international recognitions, with her recent appointment to the Governing Board of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA); a feat which is coming on the heels of her appointment to the World Bank Sanctions Board as an External Sanctions Board Alternate for IFC matters.

The Learned Silk whose appointment letter came from the office of the Executive Director of the ICCA, Lise Bosman; notified her of her election by a two-thirds majority of Governing Board members. She was appointed alongside four other members drawn from three continents include, two women who are arbitration practitioners, the Secretary-General of a large arbitration institute, a former national court judge and a sitting judge of the International Court of Justice. They are: Ellen Gracie Northfleet – a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Brazil; Attorney and Arbitrator in private practice; Eduardo Siqueiros, from Hogan Lovells BSTL, Mexico City; Jianlong Yu – Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of CIETAC from China; and Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf – a Judge of the International Court of Justice from Somalia. The positions on the Board will become effective, April 1, 2015.

The new members will join the 40-strong ICCA Governing Board, which is charged with governance of the renewed ICCA organisational structure launched in 2012 during ICCA’s Rio Congress. Members of the Governing Board are drawn from the ICCA general membership and are elected by the Governing Board.

The ICCA is a worldwide non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to promoting and developing arbitration, conciliation and other forms of international dispute resolution.

It would be recalled that Adekoya, was only recently appointed as an External Sanctions Board Alternate for IFC matters on the World Bank Sanctions Board. Her latest appointment is a clear indication that Nigeria has taken its place in the world stage, with the country’s leading lights and achievers continuously being recognised and celebrated for their contributions to developments around the globe.

The Sanctions Board handles complaints of fraud and/or corruption associated with projects financed by the World Bank or the IFC. The World Bank’s Sanctions System aims at tackling Corruption through a two-tier administrative sanctions process. It focuses on promoting good governance and tackling corruption, which is believed to be critical to achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction.

One way that the World Bank combats corruption is through the use of these administrative sanctions against firms or individuals who have engaged in fraud, corruption, coercion, collusion or obstruction (referred to collectively as Sanctionable Practices) in connection with World Bank-financed projects. The sanctions regime is designed to protect the funds entrusted to the World Bank, while offering the firms and individuals involved an opportunity to respond to the allegations against them.

Olufunke Adekoya is currently, the head of the Dispute Resolution practice group at ǼLEX, one of the largest full-service law firms in Nigeria; and also a member of a number of Nigeria-based arbitration forums, listed on the Energy Arbitrators List by ICSID, and a member of the African Users Council of the London Court of International Arbitration.

Theodora Kio-Lawson