Pearl Nyakabwa

Pearl Nyakabwa is the Managing Partner at Dentons in Uganda, where she also leads the Banking and Finance and Energy practice groups, specialising in banking and finance law, project finance, and energy law. Her experience covers corporate lending, project financing, acquisition financing, and sovereign lending, with a particular focus on deal structuring and cross-border financings.

Pearl has advised a leading global bank as lead arranger of a €180 million loan facility to the Government of Uganda for infrastructure development; a lender on a US$5 million loan facility for affordable housing; a lender on the Ugandan aspects of a US$30 million loan facility to a leading provider of solar systems; an agricultural group on a US$8.6 million loan facility from AgDevCo; and a leading regional financial institution on the 100% acquisition of a Tier 3 financial institution. She also served as in-house senior legal counsel on secondment to a global oil company, the operator of a landmark oil project in Uganda, advising on the contractual framework and supporting legal compliance with petroleum and environmental laws, including negotiations of key agreements for the crude oil pipeline project.

Pearl holds an LL.M in International Trade and Investment Law from the University of the Western Cape (2010), an LL.B from Makerere University (2008), and is a Graduate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. She is a member of the East Africa Law Society and the Uganda Law Society.