When African start-ups fail to comply with government regulations, they frequently find themselves in conflict with the country’s administrative bodies.
This frequently results in severe repercussions, some of which might render a company insolvent or unable to function in certain markets, as was the case with some scale-ups in 2017.
In the startup community of Africa, non-compliance issues are commonplace, and they are frequently caused by a lack of adequate direction during the establishment stage.
After establishing the legal technology business Lawyers Hub in Kenya six years ago, Linda Bonyo became aware of this void in the market. She saw that new businesses had a difficult time establishing their activities within the parameters of the law.
As a result of her observation, she decided to establish a programme that combines legal and technological expertise to assist startups in meeting a variety of needs, including but not limited to legally establishing operations, having clear structures and corporate governance, preparing to seek funding, and remaining in compliance with prescribed regulations or laws.
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How Lawyers Hub guides newbies
Lawyers Hub guides startup founders through a tailored and free programme that is given in cooperation with institutions such as development agencies.
This programme is further enhanced by the availability of one-on-one consultations with the company’s lawyers. The seed stage firms that Bonyo identifies as suffering from a lack of access to capital and resources are the focus of the 12-week programme, which is now in its third year.
“The founders are trained on financials, taxation laws, intellectual property, what they require to prepare for a funding round, and need to scale beyond their borders,” said Bonyo,
Moreover, founders are led through co-founder interactions, the management of disagreements, and firm closures in the event that things do not go according to plan.
Indication that there is a need for the services that Lawyers Hub is providing is provided by the fact that the cohort for this year includes two hundred businesses selected from all over the continent.
After being hospitalised for six months in India due to a cancer diagnosis the year before, Bonyo learned all too well the need to have structures in place for a fledgling business. Despite this, there was no influence on the continuity of her company.
Remarks from the executives
“Lawyers Hub was able to continue operations, and we were able to host the festival last year
because the team carried on with the business because we had a structure that allowed continuity in my absence,” said Bonyo.
“Structure is important, it helps founders to separate themselves from the business (because they are just a part of it) and in defining the role of each member. Startups are also able to decentralize operations and let other people play an active role in the business,” she added.
Before establishing its accelerator programme, Lawyers Hub ran a fellowship programme to upskill traditional lawyers to grow Africa’s digital policy talent pool, which is needed as policymakers struggle with emerging technology concerns.
508 Africans applied for the fellowship this year. Twenty-three will complete the six-month paid programme, up from 15 last year. They also hold the Law Tech festival yearly, when experts, policymakers, and startups discuss regional concerns like AI and intra-Africa commerce, which was the focus of this year’s summit earlier this week.
Bonyo and Lawyers Hub helped create Kenya’s Data Protection Act, Somalia’s digital identity policy, and Nigeria’s AI policy. She was recently nominated to the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on the Future of Technology Policy to address regulation, technology use to meet people’s needs, and responsible scaling.
She advises the UN Economic Commission for Africa on digital identification and data governance and has collaborated with the Africa Union on data and AI policy framework.