Telecoms and technology giant Ericsson’s presence in Africa is significant and growing, as it seeks to capitalise on increasing mobile phone usage across the continent. Their five person legal team based in South Africa has responsibility for sub-Saharan Africa as well as the large South African market.

This compact but highly skilled team has been assembled relatively recently by Mahomed Essof, head of legal for Sub-Saharan Africa and country manager for South Africa. Nevertheless, the young team’s skillset is ample enough that they are able to provide full legal support across the 43 diverse territories that the company operates in. Apart from supporting the company in its deals and other business functions, the team also ‘assist[s] with good governance’ company-wide and has recently set up a central database to control the diverse entities of the business.

The team has managed to achieve all this against the backdrop of an ever-changing regulatory and legal framework that has forced them to remain dynamic and willing to solve issues in creative ways, ‘by applying a very professional… approach [to] compliance’ while demonstrating ‘commercial knowledge and sense’. This approach, in conjunction with a senior management that they interact with ‘on a very regular basis’, places the legal team at Ericsson in an excellent position to navigate any potential pitfalls that may arise in future.