On Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria released additional requirements for licensing of banks and other financial institutions. The updated guideline is meant to be read in addition to existing regulatory requirements with respect to Anti Money Laundering (AML), Combatting and Financing of Anti-Terrorism (CFA), and Countering Proliferation Financing (CPF). The reason behind the new guidelines is to; Guide promoters in complying with AML/CFT/CPF requirements in license applications for banks and other financial institutions. Ensure that proceeds of crimes are not used to establish financial institutions. Ensure that criminals do not own or control financial institutions in...

If you are a foreigner, and you wish to buy a property in Nigeria or you are an owner/promoter of a foreign-owned company and the company is looking to buy a property in Nigeria, this article is for you. WHAT THE LAW SAYS ABOUT OWNERSHIP OF LAND IN NIGERIA IN GENERAL The Land Use Act is the principal law governing land transactions in Nigeria. In summary, under the Act, all lands in every 36 States of the Federation (except land vested in the Federal Government or its agencies) are held in the custody of the Governor of the State, and...

IF YOU OWN A REGISTERED COMPANY IN NIGERIA, THIS ARTICLE IS FOR YOU Before we proceed with the steps for recovering your lost certificate, let us emphasize that the Corporate Affairs Commission is the regulatory agency responsible for registering/incorporating businesses in Nigeria. Have you lost your company/business name’s certificate of incorporation? Here’s what you can do to have it replaced instead of registering a new company; Apply for Certified True Copies (CTC) of the original registration documents. Certified true copies are simply duplicates of the original missing documents that are stamped by an officer who has custody of such documents as...

Imagine having your business or company registered only to be told that you need to carry out SCUML registration to set up a bank account for your business. Prior to this, you had proceeded to the bank in excitement to set up that business account you have always wanted to have. On getting to the bank, you were directed to one of the bankers who provided you with a list of requirements for setting up your business account. Confident that you had all the requirements, you received the list alongside the account opening form… you say to yourself “My business...

Do you own several businesses? Are you considering starting a group of companies in Nigeria? Then, this article is for you. Starting a group of companies comes with several regulatory requirements which we will consider below: 1. You must apply to the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission for consent to use the word “Group”. There are certain words you can’t use on your company name without obtaining consent from the Commission. Some of them are; “Group”, “Holding”, “Municipal”, “Building Society”, and “Co-operative”. 2. You must provide evidence of not less than 3 associate companies with similar names. All...

If you are a foreigner looking to establish a business in Nigeria or a foreign company looking to undertake a project within Nigeria and in partnership with a local company in Nigeria, you are required to obtain a business permit. A business permit is a certificate issued by the Nigerian government to enable either wholly foreign-owned or joint venture companies with foreign participation, to operate legally. The reason behind this requirement is to protect local businesses from being ousted from the local market and to promote employment within the country. Please note that a foreign company is not exempted from...

On the 19th day of October 2022, the Nigeria Startup Act was signed into law. This is no doubt a promising development for the proponents of this Act as well as the Nigerian digital ecosystem. Before we go into an in-depth analysis of key provisions of the Act, it is important we consider a brief overview of the Nigeria Startup Act. AN OVERVIEW OF THE NIGERIA STARTUP ACT       The Nigeria Startup Act is a joint initiative of Nigeria’s tech startup ecosystem and the Presidency to harness the potential of Nigeria’s digital economy. The Act aims to ensure that laws and...

In our previous article, we considered everything you need to know about data protection compliance in Nigeria. In that article, we stated that as a requirement, data processors and controllers are required by the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) to file privacy audit returns. To understand the meaning of data processors and controllers as it relates to data protection compliance, please click the link above. In this article, we will discuss the procedures and requirements for filing privacy audit returns in Nigeria. WHO NEEDS TO FILE PRIVACY AUDIT RETURNS? Any natural person or entity who processes personal data on behalf...