Kenya serves as a shining example of the fact that Africa is no longer a market of potential alone. The country is deploying a multi-alliance approach to economic growth and national security, setting it on course to make the most of the continent’s rising industrial scale, cross-border capital flows and homegrown corporate ambition.
On the sidelines of the G7 in June 2026, Kenya and the United States signed a preliminary agreement enabling the country to refine its critical mineral resources domestically.
Also in June, Kenya signed a $1.2 billion agreement with the China Road and Bridge Corporation to expand and modernise Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Several other infrastructure projects in ports, roads, rail and energy have also been announced.
A visit from French President Emmanuel Macron in May produced 11 bilateral agreements valued over $1 billion, focused mainly on transport, logistics, renewable energy and technology infrastructure.
As the East African bloc’s largest economic contributor, Kenya has also been strengthening regional ties by eliminating non-tariff barriers and increasing bilateral trade with neighbouring Tanzania.
The Dangote Group serves as an example of Africa’s tremendous corporate ambition. A measure of its scale is the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, Nigeria, which has a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, making it Africa’s largest refinery and the world’s largest single-train refinery.
It commenced fuel production in 2024 and reportedly plans to expand capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day within 30 months. The Group is now reportedly considering investing in a new petroleum refinery in East Africa.
The Dangote Group is one example of the rise of large Pan-African corporates with the scale and sophistication to compete globally.
In the financial services sector, institutions like Standard Bank, Equity Bank, Nedbank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank and Ecobank are aggressively pursuing cross-border acquisitions and building integrated platforms that connect African economies.
In the technology sector, companies like Flutterwave and Paystack are building the digital payments infrastructure needed for cross-border transactions. Safaricom’s M-Pesa platform has transformed financial inclusion across East Africa, and Jumia continues to pioneer African e-commerce.
These are not start-ups waiting for validation, they are established enterprises generating the complex, multi-jurisdictional transactions that define a maturing market.
Development finance institutions are deploying record volumes into energy, transport and digital infrastructure. Submarine cable projects and data centre investments are expanding Africa’s digital backbone.
Cross-border rail and road projects and investments in airports, especially in East Africa, are connecting landlocked economies to regional and global markets, while renewable energy developments are opening investment opportunities across the Sahel, East and southern Africa.
Global supply chain disruption is also creating new avenues for African countries that are well positioned to benefit from changing trade and manufacturing networks.
For example, Africa holds roughly 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves, including critical minerals, and its countries are increasingly focused on developing the infrastructure needed to economically benefit from these minerals domestically, rather than exporting them in raw form.
Realising this vast potential requires that volatility be managed while improving productivity and deepening cross-border integration. The continent’s structural challenges demand urgent, workable solutions, including addressing rising debt levels, infrastructure gaps and regulatory complexity.
In this volatile market where deals increasingly span multiple jurisdictions, regulatory regimes and cultures, legal advisers must be able to contribute meaningfully to a client’s growth, not merely react to instructions.
The most successful African law firms are focused on long-term value rather than the billable hour. They are immersing themselves in their clients’ decision-making processes, specific operations, industry dynamics and market pressures.
Legal advisers must now understand both the formal legal and regulatory frameworks and informal practices of all African jurisdictions in which their clients operate. No single law firm, however large, can achieve this through remote desk research; there must be genuine on-the-ground collaboration among local firms.
This evolution also requires balancing the tension between the traditional law firm hierarchy and structure important for quality and governance, and the demand for flexibility in the workplace. Technology is facilitating these changes.
Artificial intelligence has already transformed how law firms research, draft and analyse information to improve efficiency and automate tasks. But the challenge is not simply adoption, successful integration of AI models is also essential.
This is achieved by training AI models on firm-specific data, embedding them into established workflows, and using them to enhance, not replace, critical human judgement.
While technology provides the baseline, the true differentiator will be the human capacity to read the room, build trust, form relationships and translate complex legal frameworks into strategic certainty for businesses.
Africa’s transition from a market of potential to a continent of true industrial scale demands a fundamental shift in how law firms operate.
As massive infrastructure, energy and critical mineral projects redefine the continent’s economic landscape, clients need long-term partners who understand their industry pressures, cross-border supply chains and regional ambitions.
For Africa’s potential to become a long-term strategic certainty, the true differentiators in the continent’s ‘relationships era’ will be strong partnerships built on trust, transparency and aligned incentives.