Olivier Pognon is the CEO of the Legal Support Facility in Africa (ALSF). Established under a treaty signed by African countries in 2008, ALSF was established to help African countries escape the traps of exploitative vulture funds.
ALSF, an independent organisation hosted by the African Development Bank (AFDB) at its inception since 2008, has helped the African government recover more than $18 billion in sovereign debt negotiations and unlocked $72 billion in private investment.
Pognon, who joined in 2021 and currently leads ALSF, has over 20 years of experience in top global law firms and companies such as MTN and Airtel. He spoke to Toni Kang on the sidelines at the IMF/World Bank Spring Conference 2025 in Washington, DC.
What exactly does ALSF do?
The ALSF is an international organization established in 2008 under a treaty signed by African countries to track vulture fund activities on the continent. You know the funds you have purchased creditors' obligations at a discounted price and recovered at three or five times the value. The funds for these vultures were very active in the 2000s. The African government, through its Finance Minister, believed that there was a need for tools to protect them from these vulture funds and essentially support litigation and arbitration. That's the idea behind the ALSF was established under the umbrella of the African Development Bank.
What is its relationship with AFDB?
We remember the service we did with AFDB. This provides services, hosting and logistics, but is technically and legally independent. This means that the pipeline of the products is different. The governance structure is different, but of course it has a close relationship with the bank.
How does ALSF work? Who will identify the debt and who will encourage you to intervene?
First, I'll say that was the original background for ALSF, but then the mandate was expanded to cover complex transactions in four sectors: energy, infrastructure, natural resources-mining, oil and gas, and sovereign debt and restructuring. We serve as legal counsel for the African government, but we also provide capacity building for government officials.
Our aim is to ensure that African governments are capable of dealing with the private sector and development banks on informed standards, so that they are fair, fair, transparent and sustainable, whatever the contracts they enter. We want to avoid a contract in three years where the government says, “Oh, we didn't know this, so we want to pull it out.” That's the purpose.
This will be a bad year with these high tariffs as official development support is reduced. How do you think we can manage our debts over the long term and fall below the threshold the IMF is talking about?
Well, I'm not an economist, so I'll give you my lawyer's perspective. Again, what I am saying is that the basis of debt contracts was often overlooked when the African government entered them. For example, before you sign an agreement, you need to predict the fundamentals of the economy. If your economy is based on products, you should probably predict the fact that those product prices may find you're troubled and unable to resolve your debts, as you know. There is a legal mechanism to absorb these fluctuations. Know that my view is before you take your loan and that everything is summed up in the contract and written down what binds the parties. At ALSF, the legal framework, a regulatory framework, is well known, ensuring that people, for example, at debt management offices, are highly trained. They should be able to cross the table of negotiations with IMF people who usually bring lawyers along and have meaningful, balanced discussions.
From your experience, have these loans always been fair, fair and fair?
I don't think so, but I always blame others for the pitfalls from someone else's negligence that they should have control over. See, we think some of those contracts are the reason why we put us in their trap. That's because we're not exposed. Especially our lawyers, I don't want to say I'm lacking in competence. What I want to say is there is no revelation. So there are two ways to become an expert on something. It is by doing it over and over again, or at least by being exposed to the theoretical aspects of the academic discipline of things. I don't think that our continental lawyers and most lawyers within the government are fully exposed. As my co-contractor, do you know why you don't want to extract the greatest profits on your side?
I mean that it's the name of the game, you know, negotiation. I think that's what's going on because you're trying to make a lot of profit from your contract. But the problem I'm seeing is that you won't go borrow money except you're in a terrible strait. Therefore, when you are in the miserable strait, your negotiation power is not at an optimal level. That said, I think we should use the minimum bargaining power we have, but sometimes we don't even use it. Loans and borrowings are required. You cannot develop without borrowing. I think the bargaining power that Africa has is still relevant, especially when we realize that there is some of the world needed.
Would you advise the country before signing the contract?
We like to come first. Here is an example. Suppose the country wants to issue a new mining license or a new independent power producer license. First there is the entire process of knowing how much you want and how much you want. There is an entire process that brings together the bidding process and more. When you come first, you can also advise on the structuring of your bid, the amount, and important commercial or legal points you need to take care of.
We can introduce a complete team to help our nation from the start, from the start to sign a contract. We have been in a situation where the country calls on the ALSF to help them get out of the forest as the relationship becomes sour and the private parties are threatening to be sued. You have these requests and can help at that point, but of course it is much more difficult.
How much have African countries been accepting you and the services you provide?
They are receptive. We worked in almost every country on the continent. I consider the value added or ALSF value proposition to double. One is proximity to government officials. So, for example, if you take the Ministry of Energy. Within the Ministry of Energy, the focus is on the Ministry of Energy, usually the secretary or technical advisor to the minister. We build that relationship and know what they want and what direction they are trying to go. The second aspect is that some of our work is actually subsidized. We raise funds and allocate these funds in the form of grants to support legal costs that the state has to pay otherwise. They don't pay us anything or pay the committee.
That's a large part of our work, and of course there are some projects of bankable commercial nature that we have a successful scheme or cost recovery. This means that when you get $500,000 in advance and close the project and get successful, you usually pay off half of that through the developer. These issues are present in Angola, where those who negotiated or encouraged the recovery of funds are suing the government.
Let's talk about China and natural resources. Look at the mining trades in Congo and Nigeria. What's going on there, and how are these contracts signed?
We are demand-driven. We act upon requests from the state or government. So, if the country stays away, there is no way for us to support them. So you mentioned the Congo and the mining sector's deal with China. All I know is what you can read from the media. Because the country does not ask the ALSF to support them. And while this is not directly against China, I think it is a mistake to not properly advise against minerals and important minerals in the country, just like the DRC. I'm not saying that only ALSF can do that. I say I'm procuring lawyers.
One reason to attend these events is to increase your visibility of ALSF. From a technical standpoint, organizational reliability is well established, but it requires work on brand awareness. Like I said, we are well known and we work across the continent. We are lawyers, right? But we also need to surround ourselves with partners, academics, institutions, think tanks that can advocate. I think we'll get there.
