Akusa Batwala

Akusa is a Partner in ASAR’s Kuwait office, specialising in corporate and commercial law. She joined the firm in 2008, following her role as in-house legal counsel at an international telecommunications company operating in Uganda.

She advises both local and international clients on a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including employment, insurance, construction, and agency and distributorship arrangements. She also has significant experience advising on major PPP projects in Kuwait, where she has acted for the government, sponsor consortiums, and lenders.

• Akusa was part of the team advising the Government of Kuwait on a precedent-setting independent water and power producer (IWPP) project. The project involved a large-scale power and desalination plant and was the first to be successfully procured under Kuwait’s PPP framework, reaching financial close with both public and private sector participation.

• Akusa advised a consortium on the development of a major wastewater treatment PPP project—one of the largest and most complex globally. The project was procured under Kuwait’s PPP Law and involved extensive construction and financing arrangements, with financial close achieved in 2020.

• Akusa advised a syndicate of lenders on Islamic and conventional credit facilities extended to a project company for the expansion of a build-operate-transfer (BOT) wastewater treatment plant. Upon completion, the facility will become the world’s largest membrane-based wastewater treatment plant by capacity.

• Akusa advised on construction contracts for a major high-rise commercial development in Kuwait’s central business district. The environmentally sustainable tower was designed to international standards and includes more than 100,000 square metres of built-up area.

• PPP & PFI
• Data Protection & Privacy

• Government Procurement
• Healthcare & Life Sciences
• Media
• Communication & Technology
• Agency & Distributorship
• Employment
• Insurance
• Construction

• Master of Laws (LLM) in Information Technology and Telecommunications Law, University of Strathclyde, Scotland, 2006
• Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Law Development Centre Kampala, Uganda, 2002
• Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (Bar Vocational Course), Nottingham Law School, United Kingdom, 2001
• Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (with Honors) LLB, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, 2000

• Member of the Honorable Society of the Lincolns Inn (United Kingdom), 2001

• Member of the International Bar Association, 2009
• Admitted to the Bar in Uganda, 2003
• Admitted to the Bar of England and Wales, 2001