GOVERNANCE, RISK AND COMPLIANCE

Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Countering the Proliferation of Terrorist Financing

• Completed and submitted the study on the risks of misuse of legal persons and legal in Nigeria for money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing, following the Firm’s appointment by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) as Country Expert.
• Reviewed the anti-money laundering and related policies of Network International in connection with its take private by Brookfield Asset Management Limited.
• Guest speaker at the Public-Private Partnerships workshop on driving effective AML compliance hosted by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the London Stock Exchange Group.

COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

• Confidential: Providing competition advisory and regulatory interface services to British American Tobacco Nigeria in relation to the monitorship by a Monitoring Consortium under the authority of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).
• Advised a multi-national transportation company in connection with potential Nigerian anti-competition law concerns regarding its distribution arrangements in Nigeria.
• Providing consumer protection advisory services to a leading Nigerian commercial bank with respect to inquiries by the FCCPC on consumer protection.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCEE

• Confidential: Conducted board performance evaluations for the global banking group, including review of board charters and constitutional documents, design of evaluation questionnaires, and reporting on compliance gaps and implementation priorities.
• Confidential: Delivered corporate governance, compliance and risk management training for the boards, executive management, company secretarial, compliance and legal teams of leading Nigerian insurance, banking and financial holding groups.
• Confidential: Designed and implemented a unified compliance framework for an international oil and gas company, including review of existing policies and assessment of their effectiveness.
• Confidential: Reviewed the constitutional documents of a leading Nigerian commercial bank for alignment with the current legal and regulatory framework.

DATA PROTECTION

• Confidential: Advised leading global technology platforms, multinational banks and a Nigerian financial holding group on Nigeria Data Protection Commission investigations, including engagement with the Commission and ongoing compliance support.
• Confidential: Provided data protection advisory services to a broad client base spanning banking and financial services, building materials and industrials, social media and technology, education, and logistics and aviation.

ESG

• Conducted a corporate governance and ESG evaluation for a Financial Technology company, including the review of policies and development of an ESG roadmap.
• Contributed to the 2024 and 2025 Oxford Net Zero Policy Monitor, an open and online database of climate laws that supports climate-related disclosures, corporate and national transition planning and public procurement. This included a thorough review of Nigerian climate-related laws, regulations and policy tools.

WHITE-COLLAR INVESTIGATIONS, TRACING AND RECOVERY

• Confidential: Advised various entities on internal investigations involving harassment, discrimination, ticket racketeering, bidding irregularities, and integrity of production data.
• Confidential: Led an international investigation into the misappropriation of client assets, advised an foreign oil and gas company on a cross-border corporate fraud matter involving unauthorised shareholder representation in Nigeria,
• Confidential: Supported an international financial services firm on subsidy fraud claims against a high-net-worth individual for KYC purposes.

PRIVATE WEALTH

• Confidential: Providing comprehensive advisory and implementation services to an ultra-high net worth individual (UHNI) on the Nigerian legal, regulatory and tax implications of transferring selected classes of the UHNI’s assets across multiple jurisdictions into a consolidated Family Vehicle in either the form of a trust or a foundation.
• Confidential: Appointed by the family of a deceased first generation UHNI to manage and settle the estate, comprising of assets in both Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
• Confidential: Providing extensive legal services in connection with asset tracing, and recovery to secure and preserve value for the UHNI.
• Confidential: Advising a UHNI on the restructuring of interests held in the primary wealth-generating company as part of a broader strategy for asset diversification and long-term wealth sustainability.

GOVERNANCE, RISK AND COMPLIANCE

Schlumberger

• Provided legal advice regarding FCPA, OECD Convention, and Federal Sentencing Guidelines, UK Bribery Act etc. as they affected Schlumberger’s business.
• Mapped legal risk of business operations and countries of operations.
• Managed reviews & investigations in Nigeria and Kazakhstan related to US Department of Justice inquiry into the activities of Panalpina on behalf of Schlumberger resulting in clearing Schlumberger and zero indictment or formal charge. DOJ declined to extend its investigations to Angola.
• Conducted due diligence on 3rd party relationships; business assurance reviews in Kazakhstan, Azerbailjan, Algeria , Libya, Romania, Angola, Cameroon and other  company locations; functional audits and allegations or violations investigations or incident reviews.
• Conducted several investigations further to various allegation reports ranging from improper payments, conflicts of interest, kickbacks, harassment, improper financial conduct, breach of policy or code of ethics etc. These included forensic analysis of electronic data and hard copy documents.
• Developed ethics and compliance training content addressing Customs hazards, 3rd party agent risks and other job/transaction specific hazards. Developed scenario-based training for staff.
• Ensured regulatory compliance in areas of trade control, hazardous materials, visa & immigration laws, telecommunication regulations, competition law, among others.

OIL AND GAS

Schlumberger

• Advised on government taxes and levies at all levels, operational issues, liabilities and indemnities enforcement, environmental issues, review and advise on laws governing Hazardous materials including Radioactive sources and explosives (creating a HazMat legal procedure), liaised with Nigerian Nuclear and Regulatory Agency and the Department of Petroleum Resources.
• Worked with team on local content strategy and represented Schlumberger in industry group for contribution to local content bill and set up of Joint Qualification System. Negotiated NiPEX User agreements on behalf of oil service companies.
• Supervised management of corporate matters for 13 companies. Sat as Director on the board of Schlumberger Nigeria Limited. Developed and executed due diligence plan for investors via sale of shares managed by the Bureau of Public Enterprises.
• Managed the Company’s litigation portfolio

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Etisalat Nigeria

• Member of the Etisalat UAE Group High Potential (HiPo) Employees Program selected as one of the top employees from across 18 operational countries/subsidiaries.
• Managed 15 lawyers in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt. Provided key legal support including due diligence, transaction structure and advisory services, documents preparation and review, negotiations, execution and closing of conditions precedent on several key transactions including:
• $1.2bn syndicated loan refinancing (Euromoney Project Finance Deal of the Year 2013),
• $ 650m syndicated loan financing (Euromoney Project Finance Deal of the Year 2011),
• $120m proposed network backbone acquisition,
• $150m IT outsourcing,
• Spectrum acquisition & 3G license acquisition
• Corporate reorganisation resulting in absorption of a subsidiary
• Sale of towers and ancillary assets.
• Drafted multimillion dollar telecommunications/technical contracts, IT contracts, marketing contracts, clients’ services contracts, employment contracts, sales and services contracts, co-location agreements, leases etc. with service providers including Huawei, Alcatel Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Apple, Blackberry/RIM, Main One, Glo, Airtel and MTN.
• Achieved significant Corporate Governance improvements by upgrading the company’s ethics and compliance program. Actively developed in-house lawyers through ethics & compliance training.
• Created compendium of all regulations affecting the company under Nigerian law, liaising with Regulatory Department to keep the company in good standing with regulatory agencies.
• Developed a contracts manual and standardised contract templates to increase efficiency and consistency in content and quality in organisation’s contracts.

MTN NIGERIA COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED

• Pioneer company secretary: set up the company secretariat, managing a 16-man board of directors (8 non-resident directors) and 8 board subcommittees and shareholders proceedings.
• Ensured compliance on all relevant company laws and regulations, the memorandum and articles of association of the Company and the shareholders’ agreement. Amended the Company’s memorandum and articles of association.