October 17, 1993 – October 17, 2026: OHADA turns 33!

A simple snapshot of OHADA's life shows that the process of harmonizing business law in Africa has been under way for thirty-three (33) years, and appears to be delivering satisfactory results, with eleven (11) Uniform Acts in force across its 17 Member States and four working languages (French, English, Spanish and Portuguese). For a human being, thirty-three (33) is the age of maturity, the period when one's identity asserts itself. Who am I? Given my history, what direction should my future take? These are also the questions facing OHADA today, and we are called upon to answer them. It is an intellectually perilous exercise, but one we must undertake on the occasion of the thirty-third anniversary of our common organization, OHADA. Clearly, the common core of these questions concerns the quintessence of OHADA, that is, its very identity card and its position in the marketplace of legal models. To answer them, we need only find the guiding's thread running through the work of business law harmonization, and to achieve that, we must redefine the essence of OHADA in order to measure the distance already covered.

Moreover, we must pay well-deserved tribute to all the pioneers who have passed away along the way, in particular President Kéba Mbaye, founder of UNIDA, that great visionary who continues, from beyond, to wisely inspire us in our daily struggle to make Africa, through OHADA, a pole of economic attraction.

As an African proverb says: “Yesterday's victories and today's successes are not tomorrow's; for while they bear witness to the past, they in no way guarantee the future. The future must be won again and again.” So let us remain vigilant, for the road is still long and the pitfalls are enormous.

Happy birthday, OHADA!
Long live OHADA!
Long live a United Africa!

Alfred Bama
President
African Association for a Unified System of Business Laws (UNIDA / www.ohada.com)