The Nigerian Law Society and the Ghana Law Society have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a new Pan-African Institute for Continuing Legal Education, PAICLE.
The agreement was signed on Monday, October 5, with the initiative designed to strengthen continuing professional development for lawyers across Africa through both physical and virtual training programmes.
The proposed institute is expected to have its headquarters in Accra, Ghana.
According to NLS Executive Director Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, the collaboration will focus on designing and delivering continuing legal education programmes aimed at strengthening the knowledge and professional skills of African lawyers.
A continental legal-training project
The initiative comes at a time when legal practice across Africa is becoming increasingly cross-border.
Areas such as arbitration, technology law, data protection, energy, trade, climate regulation, financial services and artificial intelligence increasingly require lawyers to understand legal systems and commercial frameworks beyond their home jurisdictions.
A Pan-African continuing legal education institution could therefore provide a platform for lawyers from different jurisdictions to train together and build professional networks across borders.
The move also reflects growing competition among professional associations to provide lawyers with practical, internationally relevant training rather than relying solely on traditional national continuing professional development programmes.
Accra headquarters gives project regional character
Locating the proposed institute in Ghana gives the project an expressly regional identity.
Nigeria and Ghana possess two of West Africa’s largest and most influential legal communities, while both jurisdictions share common-law traditions and substantial commercial links.
If fully implemented, PAICLE could become a platform for joint training in advocacy, dispute resolution, international transactions, professional ethics and emerging areas of legal practice.
For young lawyers in particular, access to cross-border professional education could create opportunities that extend beyond domestic practice.
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Source: Independent Nigeria report
