What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

Working in an emerging industry, i.e. ecommerce, in Africa, one of the key things I spearheaded was to ensure that all key external stakeholders gradually understand the peculiarity of the operations of ecommerce business and dispel any misconceptions. In view of this, series of engagements were had with the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission with the aim of influencing the amendments to the Bill governing the space.

With a general strategy of expanding into the outer cities and leveraging on our infrastructure to launch the new Jumia Delivery business, I led the teams to ensure that all the required compliance needs are met and the projects launched successfully.

As the point of contact on all matters related to the entire Jumia Marketplace, I led the project seeking to ensure that we had the right documentation and outlook for all our service offerings across the diverse jurisdiction in which we operate.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

One interesting experience I had during my time in the telecom industry was when I returned from maternity leave and immediately had to lead the negotiations on a new product offering being proposed by one of the major social media platforms. Typically, the legal team on their side took the posturing of ‘This is our template. There is not much room for amendments to be made’. I recall highlighting key issues regarding privacy that were exposing my company to an ultimate exposure of about US$10 m.. With the support of my GC, I insisted on the need to have material amendments made to the contract. I faced pushback from the operations teams, but I had to stand my grounds, defend my position to the company’s CEO and Ex-co and ultimately, the amendments were adopted prior to the launching of the product. As a young lawyer, then, driven by the need to ensure that I protect the interest of my company regardless of the seeming opposition and the size of business of the potential social media platform, it was essential that I insist on the right thing being done to ensure that all parties act in compliance with the law and mitigate against unjustifiable financial exposure.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

A modern in-house counsel must understand the business of the company and how his role strategically fits into its operations as opposed to adopting the support function posturing. This will help situate legal advice in the context of the business and finding legitimate solutions and alternatives to business strategies, as opposed to a binary view of issues raised for legal input and advice.

Again, in-house counsel needs to be agile. The operations of businesses are changing at a fast pace, and a legal counsel needs to be in tune with the trends and adapt accordingly. The ability to know your stakeholders’ needs and planning proactive support strategies and interventions are key to remaining relevant in the space.

Another key attribute of a modern in-house counsel is building in depth and breadth of his legal knowledge through curiosity and active learning. In most organisations, an in-house counsel plays a generalist role. However, there is the need to bring depth to bear by keeping abreast of the issues pertaining to your industry, the legislative landscape, and taking every opportunity to be a specialist in the space in which you operate. Take courses and keep learning to make your knowledge and expertise relevant.

The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications is working to bridge the digital divide, seeing increased digitalisation throughout the country. What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with Ghana’s data protection laws?

As a legal team in a technology company, the usage of digital tools is innate to our operations. The key to such digital transformative tools is the ability to create an efficient way of working and ensure that the same is done in compliance with the relevant privacy laws across the Group. Prior to adopting any additional digital transformation tool, we undertake a privacy impact assessment to ascertain how data is being collected, stored, secured, utilised and destroyed. We also undertake the needed KYC on the vendor to ensure that they operate in a jurisdiction where there are existing data privacy legislations similar to the GDPR. We then align the processes of the tool with the compliance requirements of the various jurisdictions across the Group. There are some jurisdictions with restrictions on where data is hosted so these would have to be cleared. Based on the outcomes of these compliance requirements, digital tools are procured and the relevant data processing agreements executed. We then put in the needed access requirements to ensure that only the relevant people get access. These accesses are also reviewed periodically to ensure that people who have changed their roles or responsibilities have their access status revised accordingly. The legal team is trained in its usage and any external access restrictions aptly communicated.