Team size: Eight

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

Broadly speaking, our work covers general corporate advisory (fundraising and support operations), litigation and customer disputes as well as regulatory and corporate governance matters. At the back end of 2024, we advised on an extension of our Series B fundraising round from a couple of years ago; taking our total capital raised to US$100 m. In 2025, we handled a couple of assignments that have been instrumental in enabling sustainable growth while maintaining regulatory and operational readiness across the group. Some of these include: successful applications for the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria to upgrade the license of our flagship bank in Nigeria from a Unit Microfinance Bank to a National Microfinance Bank. In terms of litigation, a number of consequential disputes were resolved but notably amongst them is the widely reported sex discrimination, victimisation and harrasment claims against our parent company in the UK and its CEO before the Central London Employment Tribunal in UK where we had to retain English counsel, support in the preparation of hearing bundles, coordinating evidence and witnesses across three jurisdictions. The claims were all dismissed and the tribunal ruled in our favour. In the same vein, we successfully appealed a regulatory fine imposed by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office in relation to a subsidiary. In Nigeria, we just concluded the resolution of an 18-month old dispute between our bank in Nigeria and the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria in respect of proceedings before the Advertising Offences Tribunal and the Federal High Court.

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

By translating evolving legal and regulatory expectations into practical policies, guidance notes, board processes, and accountability frameworks, we set clear standards for regulatory compliance across product development, credit, marketing campaigns, customer interactions, and consumer protection. This approach strengthens board oversight, ensures regulatory alignment, and promotes transparency, risk discipline, and ethical decision-making, demonstrating how corporate counsel plays a central role in embedding governance reforms into day-to-day operations in an organisation like Kuda.

What strategies has your legal team adopted to manage disputes and mitigate risks in Nigeria’s dynamic business environ ent?

We do our best to stay out of formal dispute settings (court rooms, tribunals etc) so our strategy focuses on early risk identification, strong contractual controls, and commercially pragmatic dispute resolution. Where disputes arise, we prioritise regulatory engagement and negotiated outcomes, while remaining prepared to defend the business robustly through litigation where necessary to protect value and reputation.

How is your legal department leveraging technology to improve compliance monitoring, contract management, or governance reporting?

Technology plays a key role in optimising our legal operations, particularly in supporting a diverse and multi-jurisdictional business like Kuda. We use Omnea as our contract intake, review and management platform, enabling structured request initiation, efficient negotiations with external parties, and seamless execution through DocuSign. Through DocuSign CLM, we capture and manage contract data points across the contract lifecycle, improving visibility, compliance monitoring and governance reporting. In addition, we leverage a combination of internally built and third-party tools for fraud monitoring and regulatory filings, allowing us to tailor controls to jurisdiction-specific requirements while maintaining consistent oversight and audit readiness.