By Ashu Manfred
A one-day training workshop for Common Law lawyers resident in Kumba, Meme Division, South West Region of Cameroon, has come to an end.
The training workshop, that took place on Friday 11 April 2025, at the Regal Hotel Buea road, was attended by members of the Meme Lawyers’ Association MELA. It was organised by Ngoulla Fotso and associates law firm.
In her address, the organizer, Ngoulla Fotso Ariette, stated that the seminar is predicated on the wind of change sweeping across the legal profession.
“This seminar is a beacon of the knowledge of the winds of change sweeping our profession”, she said, adding that the world is evolving at a pace once unimaginable – geometric , relentless.
To add more flesh to the fast-changing nature of the world, she declared:
” Artificial Intelligence, AI, and global service providers are there to eclipse local practitioners if we stand still.”
She went further to borrow a quote from Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to highlight the importance of legal practitioners keeping abreast with the evolving times.
” The days of those conformed to local and national practice are numbered ,” she said, adding that professor Yemi’s statement is not mere rhetoric, but a call to action.
Ngoulla Fotso Ariette further informed her peers that the African Continental Free Trade (AfCFT) now has 54 nations into a single market, while Regional frameworks like OHADA harmonize business across the CEMAC Region.
“These are not just legal instruments, they are gateways to opportunities demanding that we expand our expertise beyond familiar borders”, she said, adding that ” to thrive we must reclaim lion share of legal landscape.”
Ngoulla Fotso Ariette then went on to explain why for years she has championed seminars dedicated to the mastery of OHADA laws.
“These trainings are not merely academic- they are lifelines equipping us to navigate transnational disputes, advise cross border ventures and lead in an Integrated Africa and above all position ourselves as key stakeholders in the development of our region,” she said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the president of MELA, Dr Barrister Ebolloh Emmanuel Musango, thanked Ngoulla Fotso Ariette and her team for coming to hold the training in Kumba. Given the evolving legal landscape, he informed his colleagues that they goback to the classroom and pay keen attention to all lectures and put it in practice.
Dr Barrister Ebolloh Emmanuel Musango took time off to announce that under his regime he would construct a befitting Secretariat for MELA. Unlike his predecessors, he promised to closely work with the press.
Topics discussed include: Innovations to the OHADA simplified recovery procedure, a Cameroon perspective; Land Litigation in Cameroon: understanding the joint role of the courts and the administration in the various proceedings; the presidential jurisdiction under OHADA and Common Law, major innovations to measure of encouragement of court judgements under OHADA law.
The seminar, we observe, has taken place in over a dozen towns in Cameroon.
The Kumba training was also attended by some lawyers out of Kumba.
