JD Supra (JD Supra Nigeria)

The Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act was signed and enacted into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in February 2023. The Act aims to (i) promote the ease of doing business in Nigeria by ensuring transparency and regulatory efficiency; and (ii) facilitate the growth of businesses in Nigeria by reducing the time of applications Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of...

Introduction - Corporate governance encompasses the system of rules and regulations that governs the affairs of a company. It seeks to ensure that the financial and non-financial interests of all stakeholders in the corporate ecosystem are balanced.

Introduction - With about 383 tech startups raising a combined total of US$2,068,709,445 between 2015 and 2022 - a higher total than any other country in Africa, Nigeria benefits greatly from the economic contributions of startups1 . The passing of the Startup Act therefore marks the dawn of a new dispensation for startup ventures in Nigeria. Please see full Publication below for more...

Introduction - On the 19th of October 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Startup Act (the Act). The Act is a significant legislation for the Nigerian technology and innovation ecosystem as Nigeria has increasingly become a prime destination for startup funding in Africa despite inadequate regulatory framework. In 2021, out of the $4billion startup funding in Africa, Nigeria attracted

Effective cargo management is essential to the smooth operations of Nigerian ports and terminals. The management of cargo on arrival at the ports and terminals directly impacts the nation’s commercial, economic, and international trade status. A key component of cargo management at Nigerian ports and terminals is the operation of barges. Please see full Publication below for more information.

The global financial services industry is in the process of transiting from the utilization of the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) benchmarks. Accordingly, borrowers and lenders across the globe are navigating the transition from LIBOR to risk-free rates (“RFRs”). The Nigerian financial market is not excluded from this transition. Please see full Publication below for more information.

Introduction Environmental Social and Governance (‘ESG’) is one of the biggest issues in the business world today. While the concept has been around for some time, it began to garner significant traction following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. ESG relates to the effect that a company’s business practices has on (1) the environment (‘E’) in which it operates, including energy resources...

Background - An important offshoot of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 (the “PIA” or the “Act”) is the creation of aźstatutory and regulatory framework that allows host communities of oil and gas companies to directly enjoy socio-economic benefits from petroleum operations with the aim of facilitating sustainable prosperity/development to such communities, as well as peaceful relations...

Introduction: - On the 10th of May 2022, the arbitration community in Nigeria awoke to the cheering news that the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had passed the Arbitration and Mediation Bill 2022, after a 16-year struggle to have a reformed arbitration legislation tailored to meet the need of users, especially the corporates. Although the Bill still needs to be assented to by the...

A. Introduction - The power generation mix for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (the “NESI”) is dominated by gas with over 70% share of on-grid electricity generation, with hydro supplying the rest1 . As the technical, operational and commercial regulator of the NESI, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (“NERC”) introduced different regulatory measures aimed at improving the

INTRODUCTION - Despite disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting to changes in global trade patterns and a supply chain crisis, Nigeria’s maritime industry made some gains in the year 2021. Compared to the year 2020 which saw a downtime in global trade, the year 2021 marked a rebound in commercial shipping activities around the globe with Nigeria receiving its fair share of value.

Introduction - THE METAVERSE: A GENERAL OVERVIEW - Although it may seem that the Metaverse is a new catchphrase, which is further emphasised and made more popular in the technology space with the rebranding of Facebook as Meta, the original version of the Metaverse was created as far back as 2003 by Philip Rosedale and was called “Second Life”1 , a befitting name for an alternative...

Introduction ESG — which stands for Environmental, Social and Governance — ensures that with the application of these three criteria, a company’s method of operations is considered alongside its profitability . ESG compliance therefore fuses ethical practices into business operations by ensuring that in addition to providing value for its investors, companies also add value to other stakeholders (

A US$3 billion financing amid a volatile market shows oil & gas projects with strong fundamentals can continue to raise debt... In May 2020, during the most volatile period in the oil & gas sector in 40 years, Nigeria LNG Ltd (NLNG) signed a historic US$3 billion corporate loan to finance the construction of its seventh liquefied natural gas (LNG) train. The Nigeria LNG Train 7 project (Train 7

Harmonizing business laws, a revised foreign exchange regulation and introducing a new currency. Currency is a hot topic in West and Central Africa, in both the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (EMCCA, or CEMAC in French) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) zones. Several currency and related reforms currently being implemented and contemplated could...

Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources (“DPR”) announced on 1 June 2020 the launch of a new marginal field bid round. Fifty-seven marginal fields have been made available, being a mix of onshore, swamp and shallow-offshore fields...

Third party funding – by which a commercial fund finances the costs of proceedings in return for a share of any damages awarded – has recently seen an upswing globally with a number of jurisdictions legalising it as they look to increase their attractiveness as arbitral venues. Proposed amendments to the current law in Nigeria would allow it to join this global trend and to strengthen its...

On 11 April 2018, Hogan Lovells International LLP hosted the High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Adesola Oguntade CFR, CON at its London office. Ambassador Oguntade, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria was accompanied by a delegation including the Minister/Head of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Ahmed Sule.

Lagos State Nigeria (the State), the commercial capital of Nigeria, initiated the Embedded Power Programme in 2017 as part of its project, popularly referred to as the “Light up Lagos Project”, to generate and distribute approximately 3,000MW off-grid power for public utility in the State (Project). The Project is a special initiative comprising of street lighting, community electrification and...

Growing frustration in the fashion community regarding weak or non-existent intellectual property laws has finally caught the attention of some nations. Nigeria is one nation that currently is trying to alleviate this frustration by reforming its intellectual property laws. This reform is driven, in part, because, Lagos, Nigeria has quickly risen as a fashion hub, and has been compared with such...

Historically, one of the key concerns of LPs regarding African private equity has been the number and quality of available exit routes. Illiquid domestic exchanges as well as political and foreign exchange risk have all weighed on the exit multiples that investors have hoped to achieve. However, as the African private equity market matures, the chances of achieving a successful exit have notably...

On 11 September 2017, the President Buhari-led government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, announced plans to grant operating concessions over four of the ten international airports in Nigeria – the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos State, Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja, Port Harcourt International Airport in Rivers State and Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano

Today, many areas of the African economy are still growing despite challenges due to sharp reductions in the price of oil and other natural resources. Besides the industries related to the continent's natural resources, infrastructure projects, banking and telecommunications are also on the rise. In these areas and many others, Africa has a large untapped market with relatively low penetration...

While credit ratings are designed to assess the creditworthiness of country or corporation to inform the decisions of investors in these entities, the considerations of credit rating agencies may not always be fully aligned with those of investors. However, given a government's responsibility for delivering infrastructure and power and, as a result, its key role throughout the term of a project,...

In this hoganlovells.com interview, Hogan Lovells counsel Jerome Finnis discusses how disparate factors, such as force majeure events and changes in law, can provoke disruptions in Nigeria’s oil and gas supply chain. He also talks about how some companies and investors seek to protect their interests by including "stabilization" and arbitration clauses in their long-term contracts.

Private equity in Africa has come a long way since the early 1990s, which saw development financial institutions (DFIs) investing in government-initiated development projects across the continent. During that period, such investments were restricted almost entirely to South Africa and North Africa. The period that followed was characterised by the emergence of a limited number of South African–foc

In October 2014, the Africa Development Bank noted that Africa's 'primary task' was to find ways to plug the annual infrastructure funding deficit. It is nearly a decade since they estimated the financing requirement to close the deficit amounts would be US$93 billion annually until 2020. Finding sources of funding to make up these estimated amounts is clearly key.

(a) You have been working in the Nigerian Capital Markets space for about 11 years now - what would you say has kept you attracted to the Market? My mother introduced me to Capital Markets at a very young age. She strongly believed in the capacity of the Market to create and preserve wealth, and so back then, she was acquiring specific dividend paying stocks.

Asked to speak on the prestigious opening panel at the NBA2017 in Lagos, I was both honored and somewhat perturbed when I realized that the 10,000 delegates number promised was not a decimal point out. The event was frankly extraordinary as a feat of logistics and content.

1 .What role does the government of nigeria play in approving and regulating foreign direct investment? Due to the economic benefits that accompany Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the Nigerian government strives to attract FDI by operating a liberal foreign investment regime. Globally, Nigeria is viewed as Africa’s largest market, and has over the years remained one of the largest recipients