CAMeC: when Beninese entrepreneurs settle their disputes differently

A commercial dispute is not always settled in court. Since 2003, CCI Bénin has had a Centre for Arbitration, Mediation and Conciliation (CAMeC), thoroughly reorganised by a decree of June 2018 to make it a benchmark for dispute resolution in the region.

For an SME, the stakes are rarely theoretical. A customer who does not pay, a supplier who delivers late, a partner who disputes the profit split: these situations put cash flow, and therefore the company’s survival, at risk. Yet conventional court proceedings take years, absorb management time and expose the company’s affairs publicly. Many entrepreneurs simply give up asserting their rights — which amounts to financing the other party’s default.

Three ways to settle, one shared goal

CAMeC offers traders, manufacturers and business people three distinct instruments. First,arbitration: one or more arbitrators decide the dispute on the basis of a private agreement, and their award is binding. Then mediation: a neutral third party helps the parties reach an agreement themselves, without imposing a solution. And finally conciliation, in a similar spirit, with a conciliator who can propose the terms of a settlement.

The practical difference is essential: arbitration decides, mediation brings together. When the business relationship deserves to be preserved — a strategic supplier, a long-standing distributor, a partner you must keep working with — mediation is almost always preferable. When the relationship has broken down and an enforceable decision is needed, arbitration is the right tool.

The whole scheme has a clear goal: to offer faster, more flexible justice better suited to the nature of commercial disputes, while securing the investments of the parties involved.

• Confidential proceedings, unlike the public hearings of ordinary courts — a decisive point when the dispute concerns margins, customers or know-how.
• Shorter timeframes and final decisions.
• Competitive fees : since the 2019-2020 reform, any mediation dispute involving less than ten million FCFA is free of charge.
• A list of approved mediators, conciliators and arbitrators made available to the parties.

The clause that changes everything, and must be written before the conflict

The point entrepreneurs rarely remember is this: recourse to CAMeC is prepared when the contract is signed, not when the disagreement arises. Arbitration rests on an agreement between the parties. Without an arbitration clause in the contract, you will need the other party’s consent once the dispute has arisen — consent they usually have no interest in giving.

In practice, this means that one line added to your terms and conditions and framework contracts is worth, when the day comes, several months of proceedings saved. It is one of the rare legal decisions that costs nothing at signature and can bring considerable benefit.

For diaspora entrepreneurs and their foreign partners, the benefit is even clearer. Arbitration is the most widely recognised method of dispute resolution internationally, and it avoids having to settle the always delicate question of which court has jurisdiction when the parties live in two different countries.

Sources: CCI Bénin, Arbitration and Mediation department · commerce.gouv.bj · Decree of June 2018 reorganising CAMeC.