Dawda Jawara is a Special Counsel at Cohen & Gresser’s London office. He has over a decade’s worth of experience advising international investors into emerging markets, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Dawda has represented bilateral and multilateral development finance institutions, commercial lenders, and other corporates on a range of debt matters relating to trade, project, and acquisition finance.

Before joining Cohen & Gresser, Dawda founded and led the Africa desk of Clyde & Co in Dubai, where he advised primarily Middle-Eastern and Asian investors on a range of matters pertaining to sub-Saharan Africa investment. Prior to that, he was a legal consultant to the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) in Cairo, where he participated in the bank’s credit and business development committees. In that role, he was responsible for structuring and executing a transaction portfolio of over $2 billion. Before Afreximbank, Dawda was a member of the debt finance team at an international UK law firm in London.

He is also a senior member of Altica Partners, a sub-Saharan Africa facing investment firm, and an advisor to the Africa Centre, which is a home of African art and culture in London.

Dawda studied law at the University of Warwick and did the LPC at the College of Law in Moorgate. Following law school, Dawda interned at the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the Office of the Prosecution. He is qualified in both England and Wales and The Gambia.