Demand Guarantees Under the OHADA Uniform Act on Securities

This paper seeks to assess the extent to which the provisions of the Uniform Act dealing with demand guarantees meet the OHADA objective of modernisation to facilitate commercial activity. It notes that in general those provisions are to be welcomed as a helpful contribution towards the aforementioned OHADA objectives. However, it argues that there is scope for some improvement and that a revision of the provisions is desirable, primarily to give the parties greater commercial flexibility by allowing them more freedom of contract and to reduce the areas of uncertainty and confusion. It is proposed to consider the key benefits brought about by the Uniform Act before identifying and explaining the main areas of concern.