So much has been said about the many constraints that have affected the enforcement of contracts in Edo State and its impact on the ease of doing business.
Some of these constraints faced by businessmen and women in the past are: lengthy litigation process, lack of infrastructure for commercial dispute resolution, public exposure of litigation process, extremely poor implementation of laws, high cost of litigation, delay in filing court processes, backlog of cases, low technological know-how, amongst several others.
It meant that disputants had to endure the hardship of temporarily closing their businesses to travel to Akure, Asaba or Awka for labour related matters. This came at a huge cost because they had to lodge in hotels, pay transport fares and legal fees which did not guarantee that there will not be court adjournments which oftentimes are not planned.
These took a toll on the state economically because it was losing revenue even though statistics showed that most of the cases especially those at the National Industrial Court in Akure emanated from Edo State. This was the reality for businesses in the Edo regulatory environment until the state government decided to step-in to ameliorate the challenges, by providing facilities for enforcing contracts. As a result, a National Industrial Court was built in the state and donated to the Federal Government. It was built with state-of-the-art facilities with 300 trained stenographers to assist litigants during proceedings.
More so, thirteen specialized courts otherwise known as the small claims court for resolving financial disputes of five million naira and below, are now available for business owners. It is a cost-effective process with competitive fees that takes an average between 60 to 120 days to resolve commercial disputes from filing a claim to issuing judgment. As if this was not enough, to foster public access to justice, the Edo State Government established an alternative dispute resolution center known as the multi-door courts to complement the court system. Similar to the small claims court, the multi-door court was set-up to provide litigants a pathway to justice in a cost effective and timely manner. A notable difference between these two court systems is that the multi-door courts have a wider scope for matters it can handle besides commercial disputes while the small claims court is limited to financial disputes.
Despite these laudable efforts, many sections of the public are not aware of the strides the government is making in this regard. Some of the above listed challenges still exist which have made parties to a contractual arrangement to loathe and jettison litigation as a means of resolving contractual disputes and would rather opt for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms. To increase public patronage of its ADR center, the state has collaborated with a development partner named SEDIN a program by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), which is aimed at Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment. This partnership has introduced a compulsory training exercise of selected public service workers on instruments of ADR such as mediation by management of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators. The aim of this week-long certification exercise is to improve public service delivery of government to its business environment using skills learnt. The just concluded exercise focused on the commonest and most effective method of such ADR mechanisms which is “Mediation”. Mediation is a way to resolving disputes outside the court, where the dispute will be decided by a neutral third party (i.e., “the mediator”, who “mediates” or by a “mediation panel”), which renders the settlement agreement. A settlement agreement becomes legally binding on the parties if approved by a judge and is enforceable in the courts. Mediation has many advantages over litigation, some of which are: there is party autonomy in that parties usually agree on the mediator(s), it saves time, it preserves relationships, it saves cost, it is confidential (i.e., it is a private procedure), the chances of either party to the mediation filing an appeal against the settlement agreement is slim because of its bindingness, etc.
Flowing from the above terse delineation of the concept of mediation, one cannot, therefore, overemphasize the impact of information technology (IT) on the expeditious nature of mediation proceedings in resolving contractual disputes between parties. Unlike litigation, mediation as an ADR mechanism ordinarily saves time; and an effective application and efficient usage of IT in mediation proceedings would save more time and fast track the entire process. In good turns, this has greatly impacted positively on the ease of doing business in Edo State.
Some of the ways through which IT have been deployed in mediation in Edo State, just like in some other parts of the world are:
- email and other electronic communications between and among the parties, the mediator(s) (the “panel”) and the administering body;
- digital storage of information for access by the parties and the center using portable or fixed storage media such as flash drives, DVDs, hard drives, cloud-based storage, amongst others;
- software and media used to present the parties’ respective cases in an electronic format, rather than a paper format and E-filing of processes;
- sophisticated hearing room technologies such as video conferencing, multimedia presentations, translations and real time electronic transcripts from virtual hearings.
Also, while mediation proceedings are expected to be private and confidential, ICT has created platforms for the speedy resolution of disputes through virtual hearings. An example is the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) which affords disputing parties the opportunity to attend proceedings online via mobile apps such as Zoom or WhatsApp from anywhere in the world. This platform, which only became possible as a result of the introduction of ICT into the ADR system, is available at both the Edo State Multi-Door and Small Claims courts respectively.
With the geometric rise in the resort to mediation as a mechanism for the resolution of disputes, particularly disputes arising from commercial transactions, mediation proceedings are now increasingly making resort to Information Technology. ICT is not only desirable but also a necessity in the mediation process as an ADR mechanism in resolving contractual disputes in Edo State. This is not only a trigger for bourgeoning commercial activities but at the same time, a recipe for robust economic growth.
Ogbomo Osaze Ighoretin, Team Lead Ease of Doing Business Secretariat
