Meet the lawyer helping African countries escape debt traps

Olivier Pognon is the chief executive officer of the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF). Established in 2008 under a treaty signed by African countries, the ALSF was set up to help African countries escape the trap of exploitative vulture funds – hedge or private-equity funds that invests in debt considered to be very weak or in default, known as distressed debt.

Since 2008, the ALSF, an independent organisation hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB) at inception, has helped African governments recover over $18bn in sovereign debt negotiations and unlock $72bn in private investment – all through expert legal support on complex contracts in areas including infrastructure, energy, natural resources, and public-private partnerships.

Pognon, who joined in 2021 and now leads the ALSF, has over 20 years of experience in top global law firms and in companies such as MTN and Airtel. He spoke to Toni Kan on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings 2025 in Washington DC.

What exactly does the ALSF do?

The ALSF is an international organisation that was established in 2008 under a treaty signed by African countries to track vulture fund activities on the continent. You know those funds that used to buy creditors’ debts at a discount and then recover them at three or five times the value. Those vulture funds were very active in the 2000s. African governments, through their ministers of finance, thought that they needed an instrument that would shield them from the activities of these vulture funds and basically assist them with the litigations or arbitrations. That’s the idea on the back of which the ALSF was established under the umbrella of the African Development Bank.

What’s the relationship with the AfDB?

We have a memorandum of services that we made with the AFDB whereby they provide us some services or hosting, logistics but we’re technically and legally independent which means our pipeline of products is different, our governance structure is different but of course we have close ties with the bank.

How does the ALSF work? Who identifies the debts and who invites you to step in?

First, let me say that that was the initial background of the ALSF, but then the mandate was expanded to cover any complex transactions in four sectors: energy, infrastructure, natural resources – so mining, oil and gas – and sovereign debt and restructuring by way of PPPs mainly. We play the role of a general counsel for African governments but we also provide capacity building to government officials.

Our aim is to ensure that African governments are equipped to deal with private sector entities and development banks, on an informed basis such that whatever agreements African governments enter are fair, equitable, transparent and sustainable. We want to avoid those agreements where three years down the line the government says “oh we didn’t know this, so we want to pull out.” That’s the aim.

This is going to be a bad year with official development assistance shrinking and these high tariffs. How do you think we can manage our debt, long term, and keep it below the threshold that the IMF is talking about?

Well, I’m not an economist, so I’ll give you my lawyer’s perspective. Again, what I’m saying is that the fundamentals of debt contracting were in many instances overlooked, you know, when Africa governments entered into them. For instance, you need to anticipate the fundamentals of your economy before signing an agreement. If your economy is commodity based, you must anticipate the fact that maybe those commodity prices will, you know, go down and you’ll find yourself in trouble and unable to settle your debt. There are legal mechanisms to absorb those fluctuations. My view is before you take your loans, know that everything boils down to contract and what binds the parties is what is written down. At ALSF we ensure that the regulatory framework, the legal framework is well known, and that the people in the debt management offices, for instance, are super trained. They should be able to stand across the table of negotiation with people from the IMF who usually bring in their lawyers, and have meaningful and balanced discussions.

From your experience, have these loans always been fair, equitable and just?

I don’t think so, but I’m always uncomfortable blaming others for pitfalls from someone’s negligence that they should have been able to control. Look, I think we’re the reason why some of those contracts got us into their traps. It’s because we haven’t been exposed. Our lawyers in particular, I don’t like to say that there’s lack of capacity. What I like to say is that there’s lack of exposure. I mean there are two ways to be expert at something. It’s either by doing it repeatedly or at a minimum being exposed to the academic theoretical aspect of things. I think our lawyers on the continent and mostly lawyers within government have not been exposed enough. I can’t see any reason why, as my co-contractor, you wouldn’t want to draw the maximum benefits on your side?

I mean that’s the name of the game, you know, negotiation. You try and get as many benefits from the contract on your side and so I think that’s what’s been happening. But the problem I see is that you don’t go to borrow money except you’re in dire straits. So when you are in dire straits, your negotiating power is not at the optimal level. That said, I think we should use the minimum negotiating power that we have but sometimes we don’t even use that. Lending and borrowing is a necessity. No country can develop without borrowing. I think the negotiating power that Africa has is still relevant, especially when we realise that we have some of the things that the world needs.

Do you advise countries before they sign a deal?

We like to come in at the very beginning. I’ll give you an example. Say a country wants to issue a new mining license or a new independent power producer license. There’s the whole process of first knowing how much you want and how much you want for it. There’s a whole process of putting together a bidding process etc. If we come in at the very beginning we can also advise on the structuring of the bid, the amount, any key commercial or legal points that you need to take care of and we also work with technical and financial advisors.

We can bring a full team to assist the country from the very beginning until the signing of the agreement. We’ve had situations where a country calls upon the ALSF to help them get out of the woods because the relationship is turning sour and the private party is threatening to sue. We have those requests and we can assist at that point, but it’s of course much more difficult.

How receptive have African countries been to you and the services you offer?

They are receptive. We’ve done work in almost all the countries of the continent, maybe 50 out of the whole. The added value I think or the value proposition of the ALSF is two fold. One is there’s that proximity with government officials. So, if you take the Ministry of Energy for instance; we have a focal point within the Ministry of Energy who is usually either the permanent secretary or the technical advisor to the minister. We build that relationship and know what they want and what directions they’re trying to go in. The second aspect is that part of our work is actually subsidised. We raise funds and we allocate those funds in the form of grants to support the legal fees that the country would otherwise have to pay. They don’t pay us anything or a commission.

That’s the bulk of our work and then of course there are some projects that are more of a bankable commercial nature where we either have a successful scheme or a cost recovery. Meaning let’s say you pre-finance half a million dollars, and upon closing and successful delivery of the project the country usually, through the developer, repays us half of that. We’ve had these issues in Angola where people who negotiated or facilitated recovery of funds are now suing the government.

Let’s talk about China and natural resources. Look at mining deals in Congo and even Nigeria – what is happening there, and how are these contracts being signed?

We’re demand-driven. We act upon request by country or government. So if a country doesn’t approach, there’s no way we can assist them. So you mentioned the Congo and the deals with China in the mining sector. All I know is what I can read from the press because the country hasn’t called upon the ALSF to assist them. And this is not directly against China, but when it comes to minerals and critical minerals in a country as central as the DRC, I think it is a mistake not to get properly advised. I am not saying only the ALSF can do that. I’m saying procure a lawyer.

One of the reasons we come to these events is to increase the visibility of the ALSF. From a technical standpoint, the credibility of the organisation is well established but we still need work on the visibility of the brand. Although, like I said, we’re well known and we do work across the continent. We are lawyers, right? But we also need to surround ourselves with partners, academics, institutions, think tanks that can also advocate.  I think we’ll get there.