CovAfrica - expert commentary on African development from Covington & Burling LLP

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Apr 10, 2014, 01:44 ET

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Covington & Burling, a global law firm, today launched "CovAfrica," a new blog focused on development trends, public policy and business issues related to Africa.

Covington's Witney Schneidman and Mipe Okunseinde. (PRNewsFoto/Covington & Burling LLP) (PRNewsFoto/COVINGTON _ BURLING LLP)

Headed by Dr. Witney Schneidman, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the U.S. Government with more than 30 years of experience in Africa, the blog is written by Covington's lawyers in London, Washington, New York and Beijing, including Mostafa Abdelkarim; Peter Colwell; Andrew Dalton; Sarah Liebschutz; Mipe Okunseinde; Addison Thompson; and Jonathan Wakely.

Home to seven of the world's ten fastest growing economies and nearly 1 billion people whose median age is 18, Africa is in the midst of awakening to its seemingly endless potential. But serious issues remain. The business and investor community is grappling with a diverse set of challenges, including:

Understanding Africa's opportunity
Regulatory framework harmonization
Dispute resolution issues
Corruption and fraud
Re-investment issues
Risk management and mitigation, and many others

Talking to African Law & Business earlier this year, Witney comments:

"The biggest challenge to the Africa rising narrative is that subsectors and geographical regions are not part of Africa's rise. People have stopped getting poorer on the continent, but they're not coming out of absolute poverty as fast as needs to occur."

A international firm with 10 offices on three continents, Covington brings together lawyers and advisors who draw on industry knowledge, cross-disciplinary coordination and region-specific experience in order to craft practical solutions. Covington has experience advising clients on matters involving nearly every country on the African continent. Many of these engagements have related to the continent's largest economies, including Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.

Follow our blog at http://www.covafrica.com/ and subscribe to our Twitter feed @CovAfricaBlog.

For further information or for an interview with a member of Covington's Africa practice, please contact [email protected].

CONTACT: Rebecca Carr, 202-662-5110, [email protected]

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SOURCE Covington & Burling LLP