Regulatory Strategy & Government Relations
Approval pathways, licensing strategy and sustained regulator engagement for market entrants and incumbents.
The approval path is the critical path.
For most cross-border transactions in East Africa, the binding constraint is not documentation — it is sequencing consents across regulators who do not coordinate with one another. We map that path before signing, not after.
We build and maintain the regulator relationships that let clients raise issues early, respond to enquiries credibly, and avoid enforcement escalation.
- Approval mapping and sequencing
- Licensing and market-entry strategy
- Regulator engagement and disclosure
- Enforcement de-escalation
How we approach this practice.
Our regulatory team works alongside the deal team from the first term sheet, so approvals shape structure rather than delay closing.
Institutional investors rely on us for candid, documented assessments of approval risk that can be presented to an investment committee.
Regulatory execution as a transaction discipline.
Competition, sector, tax and foreign investment approvals mapped to the deal timetable.
Applications, variations and conditions negotiated with sector regulators.
Structured pre-notification meetings, submissions and ongoing supervisory dialogue.
Early-stage responses to enquiries, inspections and show-cause notices.
Coordinated regulatory strategy across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and COMESA.
Board-level frameworks that make regulatory posture defensible under scrutiny.
A disciplined path from concept to close.
- 01Commercial Alignment
We start with the commercial map — economics, control, contributions, and outcome — before drafting a single clause.
- 02Structural Blueprint
A structuring memo sets out the vehicle, jurisdiction, tax treatment, and regulatory path, benchmarked against comparable matters.
- 03Documentation
Bespoke documentation drafted as an integrated instrument set — designed to survive later scrutiny.
- 04Approvals & Closing
Regulator engagement, condition-precedent management, and a disciplined closing choreography.
- 05Stewardship
Ongoing counsel through the life of the matter — governance, calendaring, and dispute-prevention.
Selected regulatory mandates.
A partial view of the mandates we have advised on — sanitised for confidentiality, but indicative of the scale and complexity of our work.
- 01
Sequenced eleven separate consents across four jurisdictions for a USD 400m regional acquisition.
- 02
Advised a foreign bank on its Kenyan market-entry licensing strategy and prudential engagement.
- 03
Acted for a listed issuer in supervisory dialogue following a market-conduct enquiry.
- 04
Advised a payments platform on COMESA and national merger control clearance.
Partners leading the practice.
Where this work connects.
Considering a matter? Speak with the partner who will run it.
A confidential, no-obligation conversation with a partner — usually within one business day.