A Ghana-based law firm, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah (BELA) has been awarded the 2020 national Law Firm of the Year in legal innovation in cross-border transactions.

The awards which was organised by the International Financial Law Review (IFRL) focuses on global law firms who exclusively work on legal innovation in cross-border transactions.

In a statement to disclose this year’s winners, the IFRL said “IFRL is delighted to announce the winning deals, teams, firms and individuals for its inaugural 2020 IFRL Sub-Saharan awards.

“The announcement follows months of research by the team and careful deliberations by the editors and IFLR journalists that make up the internal judging panel.”

Winning three categories in all, the firm also won project finance deal of the year and its name partner, Kojo Bentsi-Enchill, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award.

According to organizers, “For the 2020 awards transactions must have reached financial close between May 31 2019 and May 31, 2020 to be considered. The deals must meet the specific criteria to be categorized as cross-border and as sub-Saharan Africa”.

The awards which aim at recognising the achievements, legal ingenuity and potential for innovation across the market could not be hosted physically due to the Covid-19

Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah (BELA) has broad expertise and experience in providing first-rate legal services for international and local corporations in all sectors of the economy.

The firm has a  banking and finance practice which is jointly led by Seth Asante and  Frank Nimako Akowuah, who acted as Ghanaian counsel to Afreximbank on a $150m currency swap arrangement with the Bank of Ghana while celebrated lawyer and Managing partner  Ace Anan Ankomah and Daad Akwesi jointly lead the teams dispute resolution.

Ankomah has over 25 years of experience in court litigation at domestic and international level, as well as arbitrations. The firm also acts for major domestic and international banks in the Ghanaian market