Ghana Arbitration Centre makes progress

Kumasi, Jan.18, GNA- The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) and the American Bar Association (ABA) have held a seminar in Accra on Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism (ADRM) to give impetus to settlement of disputes outside law courts.

The seminar which aimed, among others, to give a drive to ADRM, involves arbitration, mediation, and conciliation as an alternative to settling disputes at the law courts, to ease congestion and facilitate speedy adjudication.

Nana Susubiribi Krobea Asante, Chairman of the Ghana Arbitration Centre (GAC), announced this in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA), in Kumasi on Wednesday.

The Arbitration Centre, he explained was established by a group of senior lawyers in 1997, with the support of the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) to serve as a conduit for implementation of ADRM.

Nana Asante added that the business of the centre is to settle commercial disputes between parties who have consented to submit to the centre to access the ADRM instead of the courts. He pointed out that the lack of cases pending in the country's law courts and the accompanying slow pace of justice administration necessitated the move in Ghana in 1997.

Nana S. K. B Asante, who is also an experienced International Arbitrator, made it clear to GNA that, the centre has comprehensive arbitration rules and has been settling steady flow of commercial disputes between Ghanaian companies and at times foreign owned companies, thus strengthening the ADRM.

He explained that arbitration arises when two parties voluntarily consent to submit their dispute to arbitration, adding that the result of this is a binding award which can be enforced in the law courts. The International Arbitrator was quick to add that, this type of arbitration, which is regulated by the Arbitration Act of 1961-Act 38 is to be distinguished from customary arbitration in accordance with customary law. He emphasised that all evidence in arbitration are documented and there is no appeal.