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TAWELA TAONA MSISKA 

Tawela Taona Msiska

Associate

Ms. Msiska has close to 10 years of experience in the legal profession. She is part of the transactions team at the firm, executing commercial and corporate instructions. She regularly assists local and international clients with due diligence, compliance, employment, and labour law matters and company secretarial services.

 

As the chairperson of the thought leadership, publications, and training department, Ms. Msiska overseas the publication of articles and papers, in house trainings and supervision of interns. Through the department, Ms. Msiska works closely with the Head of Business Development, Mr. Longwe to maximise the firm’s visibility.

Experience

  • East and Southern Africa Oikocredit International: Advised Oikocredit on Malawi regulatory environment for foreign commercial lending activities. This included legal opinion on Malawi legal landscape and formalities in commercial lending activities, lending restrictions/ requirements of offshore ore foreign lenders and the formal requirements for loan agreements and collaterals.
  • Ghana International Bank Plc (GHIB): successfully Coordinated and led a team that provided legal opinions, reviewed facility letters, side letters, and agreements with Hogan Lovells LLP (United Kingdom) on behalf of GHIB on a Tripartite Cross Currency Swap agreement worth USD 30,000,000.00 involving Ecobank Malawi Limited and The Reserve Bank of Malawi. The agreement boosted Malawi’s forex reserves.
  • The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP): Advised GEAPP on employment, tax, immigration, and corporate perspectives on structuring local hires in Malawi.
  • Google: conducted due diligence for Google on Malawi Meteorology policies for the launch of a public website that provides maps and predictions of flooding.
  • Conducted due diligence for Google’s expansion of ads on image-related surfaces. This required thorough research on Malawi Copyright laws.

 

  • SITA V.: successfully assisted SITA B.V. to comply with Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) requirements. Provided company secretarial services for SITA B.V., including filing annual returns and amendments to the memorandum and structure of SITA B.V. Successfully renewed their Business Premises License and radio frequency licenses.
  • Africa Investment Group Limited (AIG): successfully collected more than $200,000 through debt collection proceedings on behalf of AIG against Agriculture Trading Company Limited and AHL Group Limited.

 

  • MHPL Mpatamanga Hydro Power Limited: conducted a thorough review and amendment of employment contracts to comply with Malawi employment laws.
  • Fertilizer Association of Malawi (FAM): evaluated the Fertilizer Bill in light of the National Fertilizer Policy and presented the findings at the Fertilizer Bill National Validation Workshop Program on behalf of FAM. Consequently, FAM’s concerns were addressed, and the concerns were taken into consideration for the final Bill.
  • Chirombo Investments Limited: conducted a thorough review and amendment of a loan agreement worth $100,000 on behalf of Chirombo Investment Consequently, the parties were satisfied with the amended loan agreement and agreed to the loan agreement.
  • Let’s Build Malawi: researched Malawi employment law on transport benefits and amended employment contracts accordingly. Provided legal opinion on the termination of an employee who breached the duty of confidentiality and Employer obligations for a terminated employee.
  • Up Grad: Provided a due diligence report on corporate compliances, local filings, labor compliances, contracts regulatory aspects, and data protection analysis on Centum Malawi for investment The due diligence report determined whether UP Grad would in invest in Centum Malawi.
  • Leapfrog Investments: undertook legal due diligence exercise to advise Leapfrog on the affairs of Pula AG before an intended investment. The due diligence focused on the affairs and areas of Pula Malawi in the following areas: corporate, employment, regulatory, and licensing
  • Dimagi Inc: provided employment advice for health frontline workers who are independent contractors— provided further advice on compliance with Malawi Labor and Employment Laws
  •  Global Health Corps: provided advice and checklist for all compliance requirements for an INGO entity in Malawi.
    • Scatec: provided advice on the requirements applicable to e-signatures in Malawi and a review of the digital signature clause to be incorporated in all Scatec contracts.
    • Monsif Investment Limited: Incorporated the company, tax registration at Malawi Revenue Authority, and registration/ licenses with the relevant bodies i.e., Business license.
    • World Bicycle Relief: provided advice on the appropriate structure of employment between Buffalo Bicycles Ltd and an employee who is considered an expatriate.

Pro Bono Services

  • Msiska advises a number of pro bono clients for the Legal Aid Bureau in Malawi and the Malawi Law Society.