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By Emmanuel Adeleke
The chairman-designate of the International Law Association (ILA) Arbitration Committee, Mr. Tolulope Aderemi, has decried the prohibitive cost of arbitration, urging his colleagues to ingeniously review the cost of accessing justice through alternative methods to litigation- arbitration.
Aderemi stated this during panel sessions at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Arbitration and the just-concluded International Bar Association, held in the United States of America.
According to Aderemi, the pandemic’s consequences are such that parties in arbitration are increasingly concerned about the cost of prosecuting or defending their cases before arbitration tribunals.
He stressed that this is increasingly limiting access to justice because of charge, adding that arbitration practitioners must now pay closer attention to this.
“Nigeria must aggressively consider embracing 3rd party funding of parties. Also, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should consider giving assent to the amendment to the Nigerian Arbitration and Mediation Bill, a Bill which provides for third-party funding.
“In addition to embracing third-party financing as an alternative to finding arbitration, parties may also consider arbitration insurance. This must be infused into the arbitration contract at the negotiation time. This will be a second-level improvement to dispute avoidance which companies must now embrace,” he said.
The arbitration expert encouraged arbitrators to remain sensitive to current economic realities when discussing Arbitrator fees so that Users/Clients of the process will not view the mechanism as a money-making venture, which it is not.