Accra, Ghana, August 11, 2020//-Lawyer NanaAma Botchway has broken barriers in the legal services industry to become one of the most successful female legal entrepreneurs in Ghana and beyond.
She is blazing a trail and is doing it with skill, style, passion and dexterity. She is offering the right services and at the right time – which is translating into high demand. Her commitment, high energy, sheer determination and zeal to change the legal services industry in the country is rare.
Her start-up story is not different from the hundreds of entrepreneurs profiled by the African Eye Report but her ambition to provide thousands of Ghanaian institutions, both local and foreign companies, and individuals with legal services at affordable fees is unique.
Dowuona & Company, the firm she founded nine years ago, is a leading corporate and commercial law firm in Ghana. Under her dynamic leadership, N. Dowuona& Company has grown from its humble beginnings to become a household name in Ghana as it continues to provide bespoke legal services for the people of Ghana and beyond.
Lawyer Botchway credits word of mouth referrals by clients for a lot of this growth. Her clients are satisfied with her services and she and her firm are being rewarded with more clients.
Defying the odds
In a rare interview, she said: “As a woman, I have faced many barriers because our society and our business sector is very male dominated and oriented. Despite the large numbers of women in law, it is still very much a man’s profession.
But I have always believed in being prepared and so with preparation and good fortune, I have been able to capitalize on some of the opportunities that have come my way. I am extremely motivated, focused and driven. It’s not easy. I take each day as it comes”.
As an indomitable entrepreneur, she has not allowed the many headwinds to weigh her down. Lawyer Botchway rather turned those challenges into golden opportunities that have allowed her and her firm to achieve a lot in the last nine years.
The firm has advised on numerous significant mergers and acquisitions, private equity and financing transactions in Ghana and in other parts of the world. One of her firm’s earliest transactions was advising on the Ghanaian law aspects of the $200 million sale of Fan Milk International, a leading regional West African dairy product company whose Ghanaian subsidiary is listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. N. Dowuona & Company advised Kingdom Hotel Investments on their acquisition,
development, operation and divestment of the $100 million mixed use property development in Ghana. Her firm also advised the buyers of a $180 million stake in the Enterprise Insurance Group.
The firm’s advice has been sought on noteworthy public private partnership (PPP) and infrastructure projects such as the National Identification Card PPP, a PPP for the development of a floating dry dock, the Volta Lake Transport Company’s $300 million Eastern Corridor Multi-Modal Transport Project as well as on a proposed construction of a new LPG pipeline from the port of Tema to the Tema Oil Refinery.
Additionally, N. Dowuona & Company has advised on various aspects of construction projects including planning, permitting and finance and has advised local and international developers on the construction of significant real estate projects in Ghana including the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel and One Airport Square, the first certified green office building in Ghana.
In the energy and oil and gas space, her firm advised on the proposed acquisition of Anadarko by one of the oil supermajors. They have also advised on the establishment of off grid solar energy companies in Ghana and on the pre-feasibility study on private sector participation in the Electricity Company of Ghana, the largest electricity distribution company in Ghana.
Dowuona & Company’s client list also includes some of the largest bulk distributors of petroleum products in Ghana, on a range of commercial matters, as well as other local and international oil and gas sector players involved in bunkering and other activities.
The firm is succeeding because Lawyer Botchway and her team of young, capable, mostly female lawyers, continue to serve the needs of the business community. Her clients are her most prized assets and providing them with quality and prompt legal services are her topmost priority.
Why is she thriving?
Lawyer Botchway is very focused on what she wants to achieve and she is driven by that. She starts every day with the same goals which are to do better than she did the day before and to strive for excellence in serving our clients.
‘It’s that simple for me. I encourage my staff to be proactive and to develop their voice early on. Everyone has something to contribute”, she urged.
“I also encourage them to think laterally and to develop a good work ethic. We have developed a good and I think supportive culture within our firm. The one thing we all have in common is our desire to excel. We also have a good amount of diversity in terms of viewpoint and experience and I think this all helps us in our work”.
Her Vision
When asked about her vision for N. Dowuona & Company, she said: “I actually have two partners now and we have a shared vision for the firm. In the next three years, we would like to grow our business significantly particularly in the level of sophistication of our processes and procedures to ensure that we maintain quality as we expand on our existing areas of strength in corporate and commercial, real estate, energy, infrastructure and finance law and grow our litigation offering”.
They have already leveraged technology to a significant extent but they would like to take it to the next level to help them to deliver even better quality services and more value to their clients.
“We would also like to grow our offering for small businesses. We are currently piloting a program called Launchpad which aims to provide assistance to startups”, Lawyer Botchway emphasized.
Entrepreneur
She became an entrepreneur because she saw an opportunity to provide legal services in a different way. “There are many great lawyers and law firms in our market but I didn’t see a firm that I felt would be the right professional home for me. So I created my own”.
Like many female entrepreneurs in Africa, Lawyer Botchway started her business with grand ambitions and very little capital. She describes her entrepreneurial journey as rewarding but also very challenging. Anyone who tells you that it’s easy is probably not being entirely candid”, Lawyer Botchway, added.
When asked how she developed her entrepreneurial traits, the leading transactional lawyer, said she thinks they were innate. In her words: “When I was in my teens, my late mother decided to start her own business. She was a fashion designer and more of an artist than a business person.
As I watched and listened to her plan her new venture, I could see some problems that she seemed blind to. So I started asking questions and making suggestions. She listened to some of them and they were spot on”.
From that time, she realized that she had the entrepreneurial instinct even though she didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate it.
Lawyer Botchway works very hard and says she has always had a strong work ethic. As a teenager, she worked at every opportunity that she got. “One long vacation, I had three jobs. I was always very industrious and keen to do challenging and novel things”.
Motivation to become a lawyer
As a child, she was intensely curious and she still is. At that tender age, she was always asking why and seeing the unfairness in situations. She was naturally interested in equity.
“I have always had a natural affinity and empathy for the underdog. I have always been very logical as well. I excelled in mathematics from an early age and I always thought in straight lines.
As I went further in my education, I was increasingly drawn to abstract thinking and to nuance. In law I found that I could bring all my interests and talents together harmoniously”, Lawyer Botchway said.
Legacy
She wants to leave behind a world class law firm that is a training ground for world class lawyers for decades to come. click here now if you need legal help from a reputable lawyer.
“I want my firm to be a place where people work hard and are well compensated and are able to live successful lives as professionals and as people”.
Passionate about investments
Lawyer Botchway is passionate about investments because as an entrepreneur, she understands how critical investments are to the growth of a business and ultimately to the growth of the country.
She is particularly passionate about women owned businesses and wants to do everything she can to support women owned businesses.
Ghanaians are incredibly entrepreneurial and inventive and with support they could grow many more sustainable businesses and transform many lives, according to her.
Stand for equal rights
Lawyer Botchway always describes herself as a geek lawyer because she really loves what she does. She stands for equal rights, opportunity and justice for all. She is also a women’s rights advocate and an ally of different marginalized groups in the society who are fighting for the protection of their rights.
Advice to young entrepreneurs
Lawyer Botchway used the occasion to advise young African entrepreneurs to take calculated risks and encouraged them to ask people for help, even when they think they can’t afford it.
She added: “Always have a lawyer in your corner and know when to call them. Same thing goes for accountants. Know what you do well and what you don’t and ask for help.
Don’t let anyone discourage you. Many people won’t see your vision and that’s alright. Be brave and go for it anyway”.
Awards
Lawyer Botchway has received several awards including: Elite Leading Lawyer – Legal 500; Leading Lawyer – Chambers & Partners; and Leading Lawyer – International Financial Law Review (IFLR) 1000.
Academically, she was awarded by Columbia Law School – James Kent Scholar for her recognition of outstanding achievement in law school. This award is awarded to the top three percent of students of the school.
At Princeton University, she was awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Excellence Incentive Award. This award is bestowed on undergraduates in recognition of achievement of excellence in the social sciences. It also serves as an incentive to pursue post graduate work in the social sciences.
Education
Lawyer Botchway is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School Undergraduate Program, New York University’s Stern School of Business, where she received an MBA in Finance and Accounting.
Lawyer Botchway is a product of Columbia University School of Law, where she received a JD and was named a James Kent Scholar, the highest honour awarded in recognition of academic excellence.
Lawyer Botchway who is a mother, tennis player, and art lover, is one legal practitioner to watch out for.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
