Book Review Symposia

The Functional Stakeholder Model represents a significant and original contribution to contemporary corporate governance discourse in Africa. The book succeeds in reframing how corporate governance can be conceptualised and implemented in institutionally challenging contexts, offering a compelling alternative to governance transplantation narratives. By grounding its analysis in African regulatory realities, the book provides a strong foundation for ongoing scholarship and policy engagement. It is therefore strongly recommended to scholars of corporate governance, banking regulation, and African development, as well as practitioners and policymakers seeking context-sensitive approaches to governance reform.

This paper provides a comprehensive scholarly and evaluative overview of Victor Ediagbonya’s Corporate Governance in Africa, highlighting its central arguments, methodological strengths, theoretical contributions, and significance as an important contribution to knowledge in corporate governance, banking regulation, and African political economy.

Research on corporate governance is frequent and covered by many disciplines including of course law and, in many cases, interdisciplinary. What is not frequent however, is an investigation into corporate governance in the African region specific to industry sectors. This is an important gap that needed to be filled, and Dr Ediagbonya is one of the first scholars to commence filling it. His book, Corporate Governance in Africa, is a region specific and industry specific investigation on an appropriate and reliable corporate governance framework which is both stable, yet adaptable for the peculiarities of the region.

This book is an excellent contribution to the analysis of corporate governance frameworks from emerging countries. It analyses a timely issue of corporate governance in the banking industry of two African countries, Nigeria and South Africa, with some of the largest economies based on gross domestic product (see the introduction). The banking sector in Africa is a sector of significant growth, although significantly concentrated. McKinsey insights points out that ‘performance in Africa’s banking system is driven by a diverse mix of markets, each with its own unique strategies and challenges.

This Symposium is dedicated to a critical engagement with Corporate Governance in Africa, a timely and significant contribution to the growing body of scholarship on governance across the continent. The book provides a nuanced exploration of the legal, institutional, and practical dimensions of corporate governance in diverse African jurisdictions, offering insights that are both contextually grounded and theoretically informed. This symposium brings together scholars to reflect on, interrogate, and extend the arguments advanced in this book.

Before the publication of Dr Kiema’s studies, the literature lacked a comprehensive treatment of this subject. From that vantage point, Dr Kiema filled a considerable gap in the body of knowledge and pushed the frontiers of international aviation law, international economic law and regional integration in Africa. Such a book was even more needed considering the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is a flagship project of the African Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063, coupled with the primacy of dovetailing SAATM with cognate flagship projects of the AU’s aforesaid Agenda, aspects more fully set out between the covers of this insightful book.

The liberalisation of air transport has long been framed as a cornerstone of Africa’s economic integration agenda. From the early aspirations of the Yamoussoukro Declaration to the contemporary ambitions of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), African states have repeatedly acknowledged the centrality of aviation to trade, mobility, and development. Yet, progress has remained uneven and contested. The book situates African aviation liberalisation within broader debates in international economic law and Global South regionalism, arguing that implementation failures stem not from weak legal texts but from institutional design and political economy constraints.

The book “The Air Transport Industry in Africa: A Legal Analysis of the Single African Air Transport Market” is a detailed exploration of the nexus between law and aviation, which seeks to promote the aviation industry in Africa. The book is a timely intervention as Africa grapples with an overly regulated aviation market. Importantly, the book unpacks the goals of Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), which is an initiative which seeks to provide an impetus towards the deregulation of the air services and open regional markets. The author examines the complexities provided by the quest for a liberalised air transport market as espoused by SAATM. He observes the challenges provided by the transition from bilateral agreements to unifies market based. The book is a timely intervention as Africa braces for an accelerated intra-African trade, and the aviation industry is seen as a panacea for the full actualisation of the African dream.

Dr. William Kiema’s The Air Transport Industry in Africa: A Legal Analysis of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is a major scholarly contribution to African aviation law, regional integration, and development policy. The book offers a rigorous and multidimensional examination of Africa’s air transport sector, interrogating its historical evolution, legal architecture, institutional governance, and political economy. At its core, the book analyses the promise and persistent underperformance of continental air transport liberalisation, with particular emphasis on the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) and its contemporary operationalisation through SAATM.

This book presents a comprehensive examination of the African air transport industry, widely and comprehensively combining historical insight, policy analysis, legal frameworks, and strategic recommendations to outline the trajectory of aviation development in Africa. It positions the aviation sector not simply as an economic driver but as a strategic enabler of continental integration, trade, and socio-economic transformation, an aspiration shared globally. At a time when Africa’s aviation industry is rebuilding after the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 and navigating challenging liberalisation initiatives such as the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) and the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), the book offers a timely and relevant contribution to policy discourse.