Team size: Twelve

Jurisdictions your role covers: Nigeria

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

My team and I have been involved in high-impact work across the Bank, providing practical legal support that enabled key transactions, strengthened governance, reduced risk exposure, and supported business execution across multiple departments. Our focus is to help the Bank make legally defensible decisions, execute transactions safely, protect itself in commercial engagements, and stay ahead of regulatory and reputational risks.

A significant part of our work was supporting the Bank on large-scale financing and capital-related transactions. We also provided legal support for various lending transactions such as bilateral, on-lending, and syndicated facilities, advising on the loan and security documentation required to protect the Bank. We reviewed the lending terms, security structure, perfection requirements, repayment terms, and default triggers, and ensured that the operational teams had clear legal guidance during implementation. We ensured that the structure was sound, the terms were commercially balanced, and the Bank’s interests were properly protected, particularly around conditions precedent to drawdown, representations and warranties, events of default, security arrangements, and enforcement rights.

Another major task was the preparation of agreements, privacy policies and terms and conditions for the launch of the Bank’s own payment gateway, ensuring the framework was strong enough to support the product commercially while protecting the Bank from avoidable disputes. This included reviewing risk allocation, customer protections, dispute resolution provisions, chargeback and reversal processes, acceptable use, fraud-related provisions, and compliance requirements.

To support the Bank’s digital transformation agenda, we reviewed and advised on million dollar technology contracts, including agreements supporting various fintech integrations, products and operational technology services.

Also, we play a strong role in supporting corporate governance and board operations in the Bank. These include end-to-end support for board and shareholders’ meetings, advising on governance frameworks, board and committee charters, board effectiveness processes, directors’ appointments, and regulatory correspondence.

Furthermore, dispute management form a core part of our work, given the nature of the banking industry. Banker-customer disputes are not uncommon and often required prompt, strategic handling to mitigate risk and protect the Bank’s position.

We are coordinate the defence/prosecution of litigation matters, working with external counsel and internal stakeholders to ensure we build formidable cases and strategies for prosecuting/defending these cases.

Lastly, I also play an active crisis management role within the Bank, providing immediate legal support when sensitive issues arise. This includes situations involving law enforcement harassment and other urgent matters that require swift escalation and legal direction. My focus is ensuring the Bank responds promptly, responsibly, and in a way that protects our people, our customers, and the institution’s reputation.

Overall, our approach is not just to react to issues, but to prevent them, strengthen decision-making, and protect the Bank from avoidable legal and reputational risk while acting as business partners.

What role does corporate counsel play in strengthening corporate governance in light of Nigeria’s recent reforms and stakeholder expectations?

Corporate counsel plays a critical role in helping the Bank stay compliant, keep governance strong, and execute its daily business safely especially in a market like Nigeria, where the laws and regulators scrutiny continue to evolve. This becomes even more imperative for corporate counsel in highly regulated and evolving businesses like banking where the regulatory landscape changes rapidly and the consequences of non-compliance or legal/regulatory missteps can be costly both financially and reputationally.

In my experience, the legal function strengthens governance by ensuring that decisions are properly structured, clearly documented, and aligned with existing internal policies, applicable laws, and corporate governance requirements.

Beyond meeting compliance requirements, corporate counsel helps build consistency across the institution by reinforcing internal controls, and accountability. Where grey areas exist or new risks emerge, legal counsel helps management make sound, defensible decisions by clarifying the rules, identifying compliance gaps early, and recommending necessary actions.

Importantly, corporate counsel also brings an ethical lens to governance. We help ensure the Bank does not only ask “can we do this?” but also “should we do this?” thereby promoting sustainable business principles and fairness in stakeholder treatment.

Ultimately, the legal function serves as both a safeguard and a strategic partner, helping the organisation operate responsibly while still delivering on its commercial objectives.

How is your legal team navigating Nigeria’s evolving regulatory compliance requirements, particularly under CAMA 2020, ISA 2025, and Central Bank directives?

Operating in a highly regulated sector requires us to stay ahead of regulatory developments and ensure compliance is reflected in day-to-day operations. We actively monitor regulatory updates, assess the impact of new reforms early, and work with relevant stakeholders across the Bank to ensure timely and consistent implementation.

Where gaps are identified, we escalate appropriately, drive awareness, and support the rollout of practical measures to close them. We also provide periodic updates to the Board to support oversight, accountability, and informed decision-making.

We engage regulators where necessary to clarify grey areas and align expectations, which reduces uncertainty and strengthens the Bank’s compliance position. In addition, we work closely with Compliance, Internal Audit, Risk Management, Operations and other teams to provide legal opinions and practical guidance as issues arise – including reviewing processes, identifying exposure points, and recommending improvements.

Overall, our focus is to prevent infractions before they occur, protect the Bank from avoidable regulatory and reputational risk, and strengthen a culture of compliance across the institution.