If you’ve ever tried to track competition law developments in more than five African jurisdictions at once, or even just tried to compile a clear view on notification obligations across a few nascent regimes, you’ll know the feeling: faced with nothing but a flurry of outdated PDFs, a handful of semi-translated legislative texts, and a few snippets prepared by local or regional law firms (that contradict) there’s no way of confirming the position without on the ground knowledge. That’s been me, too many times. As a competition lawyer advising clients across Africa, I’ve spent more time than I’d care to admit chasing down regulatory updates, verifying sources, and cross-checking citations. So when I came across Afriwise, I was curious, and maybe even a bit hopeful.
Afriwise is a legal and regulatory intelligence platform built for Africa. But unlike most legal tech products we’ve come across, leans into the nuance of Africa, through deep local partnerships, up-to-date legal frameworks, and plain-language guidance tailored to the unique character of each jurisdiction. It’s more than a database. It’s a platform shaped by the legal realities of the continent.
Afriwise’s CEO and founder, Steven De Backer, is no stranger to those realities. A seasoned international lawyer and longtime champion of African legal development, he’s spent much of his career building trust across African jurisdictions, first in private practice, and now as the driving force behind Afriwise. The result is a platform that blends deep legal expertise with a tech-forward, user-centric design. And it’s growing fast.
From Fragmentation to Clarity
At its core, Afriwise aims to answer a basic, yet surprisingly difficult question: what’s the law, right now, in a specific African jurisdiction? The platform covers over 40 jurisdictions, with maintained legal frameworks, curated content and guidance, and a legal monitoring system that offers real-time updates and plain-English explanations. The idea is to give in-house teams, compliance officers, and law firm practitioners alike a clear, actionable picture of the legal landscape, without needing to be everywhere at once.
It’s hard not to appreciate how practical this is. Users can compare guidance across countries, get tailored reports, request clarifications from top-tier local law firms, and even ask for anonymous quotes or direct introductions to experts. There’s something refreshingly pragmatic about it. In a world of AI-generated hallucinations and opaque sourcing, Afriwise promises verified, explainable answers backed by over 180 law firm collaborators across the continent.
TLW: Steven, given your legal background and the scale of Afriwise’s partner network, how did you go about building the trust required to create such a collaborative platform? And how do you maintain consistency across so many jurisdictions?
Steven: “I’ve had the privilege to work as a lawyer in Africa with some of the continent’s top firms, on the ground, since the early 2000s. Over the years I advised on projects and transactions in more than 40 countries, setting up networks and building best-friend relationships with leading practices across the continent. Those experiences taught me early on that trust is the real currency in Africa’s legal world and that trust is what Afriwise had to be built on.
You also have to understand that, when we started, there was nothing to build from. No consolidated databases to tap into, no single source of truth. Laws and regulations are scattered, often unpublished, sometimes contradictory. The only way to build a credible platform was to start with the custodians of that knowledge: the on-the-ground law firms themselves.
And it wasn’t just about collecting laws. We knew from the beginning that our future users in Africa weren’t looking for a static database, they needed context. They needed to understand the grey zones, the practical application, and how regulators interpret the rules. That’s why we needed law firms at the heart of Afriwise: not only to provide the black-letter law, but to explain it, make it actionable, and give it meaning in practice.
From there, we built the consistency. Our editorial framework ensures every contribution is standardised, structured, and quality-checked, so users can compare across jurisdictions without losing the nuance. It’s that combination of deep trust, contextual expertise, and a rigorous editorial process that makes Afriwise what it is today.”
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Read the full publication at The Legal Wire
