Profile: Innocent Akwayena

Mining

Biography: Mining

Innocent Akwayena is the founder and managing consultant of REM Law Consultancy, a Ghanaian law firm focusing on mining, energy and natural resources. Innocent is also an internationally trained mining lawyer. He holds an LLM degree in natural resources law, with specialisation in mining law, policy and economics from the Centre for Energy, Petroleum, Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee, Scotland.

Innocent has worked at the highest levels of Ghana's vibrant mining sector. He served for eight years as principal legal adviser to the Minerals Commission, which is the mining industry regulator in Ghana. In that position, Innocent has participated in most of the key mining sector transactions and projects since 1993. These include the divestiture of state-owned mines and the first international public offering in 1994 by Ashanti Goldfields Company (now Anglogold-Ashanti). In 1998, he won a Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation scholarship to undergo practical internship training at the economic and legal advisory services division, Commonwealth Secretariat, London where he participated in drafting mining legislation for two commonwealth countries.

Since establishing REM Law Consultancy in 2000, Innocent has been retained as counsel by some of the leading international mining companies undertaking projects in Ghana. He also advises various junior exploration companies. He has acted for clients in several international transactions, including loan transactions, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and regulatory compliance issues.