Africa Construction Law: Calling for a new era in infrastructure delivery

Africa Construction Law (ACL) held its 6th Annual ACL Conference 2026 at The Wanderers Club in Johannesburg this week. The event convened prominent lawyers, engineers, financiers, policymakers, arbitrators and investors from across Africa and the international community.

Held under the theme, “Construction in Transition: Building Africa’s Infrastructure for the Next Era”, the two-day conference is the continent’s premier platform for construction law, dispute resolution and infrastructure development. It also marks the first time the convention has taken place in South Africa, having previously taken place in Nigeria and Kenya.

In his keynote address, Ngo-Martins Okonmah (partner at Aluko & Oyebode and founder and chair of ACL), delivered a frank assessment of the challenges facing African infrastructure, arguing that the continent’s infrastructure deficit is not primarily a funding problem, but a design problem: one rooted in flawed contract structuring, inadequate risk allocation and legal frameworks ill-equipped for today’s realities.

“Africa’s infrastructure projects cannot be structured solely for delivery. They must also be structured for survival. The lesson is both specific and universal: If we persist in deploying frameworks that stifle bankability and misallocate risk, we will continue to see projects delayed, restructured or abandoned. But if we choose to transition (redesigning our contracts, our financing frameworks and our dispute resolution systems), the answer to what Africa can build is a resounding yes,” he said.

Okonmah called on the continent’s legal, technical and financial communities to move from acknowledgement to action: embedding adaptive climate and currency risk mechanisms into contracts, unlocking local institutional capital through better project structuring, embracing AI-driven contract management and evidence tools, and growing Africa’s own dispute resolution institutions so that infrastructure disputes are resolved at the speed of commerce.

The Africa Construction Law Annual Gala Dinner and Awards also took place at a glittering function. The awards recognise individuals, firms and organisations that have demonstrated outstanding leadership, innovation and impact in the delivery of infrastructure and the advancement of construction law across the continent.

The category award winners were:

• Rising Star – Wambui Githu, principle associate, Mohammed Muigai LLP, Kenya
• Leading Legal Practitioner – David Kaggwa, senior partner, Kaggwa & Kaggwa Associates, Uganda
• Leading Expert (non-legal) – Thierry Linares, senior managing director, FTI Consulting, France
• Leading Project/Initiative – Aluko & Oyebode, Project Pulse Enugu: Onitsha Expressway (RITC Scheme)
• Lifetime Achievement Award – Babatunde Fagbohunlu, SAN senior partner, Aluko & Oyebode (Nigeria)