Sectors
The Agriculture Sector in Nigeria remains the foundation of the Nigerian economy despite the presence of oil in the country and has been a source of livelihood for most Nigerians. Over the years the sector has grown tremendously both domestically and internationally and with the renewed focus on the growth of the non-oil sector of the economy, the government has over the years developed policies geared specifically toward the improvement of the agricultural sector and encouragement of farmers and investors.
In the 3rd quarter of 2019, the sector grew by 14.88% year-on-year in nominal terms with a decline of 3.44% points from the 3rd quarter of 2018 thereby contributing 25.2% (N10.50 trillion) to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the 3rd quarter of 2019. The largest driver of this sector in Nigeria is crop production, which accounts for 91.6% of the sector in the 3rd quarter of 2019 with quarterly growth of 44.12%.
The sector over the years has been transformed by commercialization at the small, medium, and large-scale enterprise level, and the firm has been able to provide legal services across the entire value chain.
With a close consideration of the major aspects of Agrobusiness which includes: Agricultural input, Agricultural production, Agricultural processing-manufacturing or agro-processing, and Agricultural marketing-distribution, the firm has actively advised on numerous innovations highlighted below;
- The use of rabbit urine as fertilizers and pesticides
- The use of orange-fleshed sweet potato as a way of reducing the cost of bread and confectionery production, an alternative to fruit juices, and a sustainable source of Vitamin A.
- The extraction and exploration of protein from insect.
- the extraction and refabrication of essential oils such as the extraction of essential oil from lemon grass.
“Innovations leading into life sciences”.
- The development of an innovative cooling solution in Nigeria, by pairing local companies with innovators to test new TCL cooling solutions that can increase efficiency, reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and improve accessibility by recording parameters like temperature consistency, Humidity control, Weight reduction, Commodity storage duration, reduction in Commodity losses and extended shelf life of the commodity.
- Development of a Smallholder Agricultural Commodities Export Program to optimize the productivity and quality assurance of Small Holders Farmer (SHF) by identifying inefficiencies in the agriculture value chain of specific export commodities such as collection, mechanization, and appropriate storage to provide for the availability of these efficiency factors as a means of assuring market acceptance and enhancing SHF earnings and living standards.
Within the industry, several finance structures that are project specific have experienced a lot of constructive measures and leveraging on these measures, the firm has worked with several companies and has been able to develop a legal structure as a foundation for creating a sustainable business that is not only impactful in their operations but also in the lives of the farmers who are major stakeholders in these projects which includes:
- Alternative Lending Scheme whereby the farmers who have farmlands, are provided with the tools, seedlings, pesticides, and all required materials for a full cycle of production up to point of off-taking, eventual sale, and profit sharing. The scheme is currently worth over USD 500,000 with over 10,000 farmers.
- A Five Billion (N5,000,000.00) value chain development program targeted towards the development of the poultry value chain production by collectivizing Small Holder Farmers (SHF) at the primary production segment of the value chain for both broilers and layers and leveraging existing poultry farm settlements in the State.
- Corporative initiatives involving the creation of several mortgages geared toward the provision of low-cost homes to farmers, and the provision of securities to ensure the day-to-day operations of the farmers.
- Creation of an alternative investment solution to traditional asset classes in the market environment for investors through the establishment of dedicated commodity notes as well as the development of commodity portfolios for the subscribers.
Agriculture is a vulnerable sector that in the ordinary sense has been shown and proven to be susceptible to pests, human factors, preservation issues, and other numerous issues the players regularly face to manage. In the last two years, however, by virtue of the pandemic, the bandwidth of these risks has expanded tremendously where appropriate reaction became necessary.
By virtue of the pandemic, the agriculture sector felt the impact across every subsector from livestock, forestry, fishing, and most especially crop production as there was a massive decline in demand for restaurant and commercial food services in combination with restrictions in labour, processing capacity and/or storage led to farmers discarding their output en masse. Although the effect of the pandemic in agriculture led to the frustration of numerous agricultural investments or partnerships as most of the players in the sector had to declare that whatever contract entered into, or obligation owed had been overtaken by a force majeure incident, it has also shaped the way the firm can provide advisory services to its clients now recognizing the possibility of critical outbreaks or pandemic and thereby adequately safeguarding the operations of its client through multiple layered documentation and operational policies. Furthermore, the firm has been able to:
- offer legal services and assist several farm management companies whose operations had been affected negatively by the pandemic in handling and managing claims arising from their numerous subscribers, investors, and partners.
- develop working strategies to mitigate such claims and the damages that may have been incurred by the company.
- support the companies by providing legal advice and assistance through representation in courts and at the offices of various law enforcement agencies.
Memberships
- Food Lawyers Network (FLN): the firm is a member of the FLN, an organization that supports and assists food business entrepreneurs, small farmers, farmers’ markets, restaurant owners, etc by providing pro-bono or reduced-cost legal services.
- International Bar Association- Agricultural Law Section (IBA-ALS): the firm through its principal is a committee member and officer of the Agricultural Law Section of the IBA, which is a newly formed sector that covers a comprehensive and dynamic legal practice area, particularly relating to agricultural land usage, ownership, and farmers right; seed law, plant variety law, biotechnology/ GMO law; food trade, food safety, and food liability.
- Nigeria Bar Association (NBA)- the firm is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association.
- SBL Agriculture Committee: the firm is a member of the agriculture sector of the NBA.
Experiences
The Financial/Banking Sector has existed for over one hundred years in Nigeria and has always been and will remain an attractive sector with a high level of competition of over $9 billion in value pools. However attractive the traditional financial systems may seem, a major challenge amongst other numerous challenges faced by the banks is the inability to provide essential financial services to millions of Nigerians, most especially in the rural areas where the vast majority of customers are underserved. These challenges led to the speedy adaptation of FinTech in Nigeria which was seen as the solution to the challenges experienced by the financial sector in Nigeria.
The FinTech (Financial Technology) Sector backed by the introduction of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) cashless policy in 2012 and the Financial Inclusion Scheme amongst many other policies, has experienced exponential growth in Nigeria with multiple players stepping up to develop enhanced propositions across the value chain to address the challenges associated with quick loans, affordable payments, flexible savings, and investments, among others.
Although Fintech has experienced widespread acceptability and financial activities have increased tremendously in Nigeria, the sector is yet to catch up with the global fintech expectation as Fintech accounted for only around 1.25 per cent of retail banking revenues in 2019 and while fintech investments in Nigeria grew to approximately $460 million in 2019, the majority of which was from external investors, this was only a small fraction of the $36 billion invested in fintech globally.
Despite the enormous potential of Fintech in Nigeria, the sector is equally faced with challenges ranging from the hurdles of Regulatory compliance, issues about data protection and cyber security etc.
The Firm in understanding these potentials and challenges altogether has been able to position itself to provide the relevant legal services to its clients as distinguished below.
By virtue of our involvement in this sector, the Firm has been able to understand the specific industry needs which have become obvious in the new market. The multi-layered collaborations as are often associated with the Technology and Fintech players have brought about several layers of dependency and these dependencies established through collaborations need to be thoroughly anticipated and thought through as they may become borderless.
These may in turn create restrictions in determining the suitable legal frameworks for each transaction.
As the Industry continues to expand, we witness the emergence of anticipatory issues and at Niji Oni & Co, we ensure to stay up to date with the trends, regulations, and policies in delivering our services.
At Niji Oni and Co, we pride ourselves on handling a wide range of corporate and commercial matters including joint ventures, private equities, mergers and acquisitions, foreign investments, corporate restructuring, banking transactions, debt recovery and insolvency; financing and refinancing transactions; project finance; corporate advisory in a variety of transactions; due diligence including corporate governance, risk management and regulatory compliance.
Through our involvement with clients and industry players, the Firm has been able to understand that it is not business as usual and as such, the Firm has been able to;
Memberships
- Member of the International Technology Law Association (ITECH Law)
- Member of the Africa Law and Tech Network
- Business club Africa
Experiences
Conferences
- Africa Tech Summit Nairobi Kenya Feb 2022
- Lagos Start-up week 2022
- Nigeria Fintech Forum 2022
The Public Sector is one of the largest sectors in the Nigerian economy. It plays a key role in the economic development of Nigeria. As we often say, Nigeria has laws or regulations for almost all sort of daily activities.
The Nigerian Public Sector is ever evolving as the often times, the government makes initiatives towards cost savings by constantly restructuring its agencies; introducing more agencies or bodies for effective regulatory implementation and opting for strategies including liberalization, privatization, project finance and public private partnerships, policy review and amendments for promotion of and support to growing economy.
Our Clients seek expertise in a highly regulated ecosystem like Nigeria. At Niji Oni & Co, we stay close to the trends, changes and where necessary, being part of these trends, has become paramount to our drive in achieving our goals as a Firm. Notably, we have contributed to the policy changes and development within the Nigerian and African aviation and agricultural sectors.
Our advices and lead participation resulted in the passage of a bill for the establishment of the first multi-modal transportation safety body to independently inquire into the transportation occurrences as a fact finding and offer recommendations to prevent future occurrences. This was in line with several international treaties and bodies for the improvement of safety in transportation within the country.
The Firm is working with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture as an appointed member to the Agro Zero Reject on the ban on exportation of Nigerian Commodities by the European Union (EU). With these project, legislations and regulations will be reviewed to ensure processing, inspection and transportation of Agro produce meets world’s standard thereby aiding the promotion of food safety.
Experiences
At Niji Oni & Co, we understand that the norm is usually the transfer of title documentation and registration, however arguably, before or after, there are several activities that come to play in real estate projects such as Funding; Construction and maintenance.
Over the past few years, there has been rapid growth in the real estate sector and the market has rapidly expanded, it has tremendously increased foreign direct investment and aided the urbanization of states in Nigeria. According to a 2015 report by CBO Capital, the sector was valued at 6.4trillion Naira ($39 billion) and the sector experienced a 3.85% growth in the second quarter of 2021 and grew at 10% per year.
Although the sector experienced a major hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in less demand for the sector and investors pulling out funds for fear of a loss, the sector was predicted to still experience a 2.9% growth in 2022 and this is as a result of the increase in the conversation of residential buildings into Airbnb’s and short-let apartments.
With the growing trend, the Firm has had the opportunity of advising on several funding structures for real estate projects and our approach stands at offering comprehensive, practical, and innovative advice through modes of financing.
The Firm has and continues to play a key role with our clients in ensuring that well established contractual obligations and all necessary permits are obtained as one will begin to appreciate such approach after witnessing building collapses. Our advisory has span across the construction of high-rise buildings, private and commercial properties etc, and our exposure reflects in our development of contractual agreements.
By virtue of our expertise and involvement in the Public Sector, the Firm has we been able to establish and maintain strong relationships with regulatory bodies and agencies at the Federal, State and Local Government Levels.
This relationship established has been able to facilitate quick delivery of work to the satisfaction of all our clients.
Experiences
The transportation sector consists of the air, marine, rail, and road freight sectors. The Nigerian transportation sector group had total revenues of $5,111.7million in 2019, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8% between 2015 and 2019.
The road segment was the industry group’s most lucrative in 2019, with total revenues of $5,080.7million, equivalent to 99.4% of the industry group’s overall value. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the GDP from transportation in Nigeria increased from 318160.43 NGN million in the second quarter of 2022 from 191448.27 NGN million in the first quarter of 2022.
The performance of the transportation services industry is highly correlated to fuel costs, labour costs, demand for services, geopolitical events, and government regulation.
The Transportation and Logistics Sector in Nigeria is undoubtedly the gateway to the nation’s economy and the backbone that facilitates trade, supply chain and general economic success.
Based on our experience so far in the operations of the sector, we understand that due to the versatility of the industry, there would be a need to enter certain contractual relationships with third parties and external players, our team of expert lawyers are well equipped to provide advisory services as it relates with such transactions and relations while also providing our clients with detailed and cutting-edge agreements to adequately safeguard their interests.
The Firm has been able to provide :
- advisory services across the entire value chain in the transportation and logistics industry with respect to the contractual relationships amongst players and stakeholders in the industry and the shift of liabilities between parties,
- advisory on the prevalent issue of insurance and third-party risks and liability etc for the purpose of mitigating the risks associated with the industry and the protection of the players.
Furthermore, the transportation industry is particularly delicate in nature as it specifically involves constant human interactions, and it is without saying that from time-to-time disputes may erupt in the course of carrying out daily activities. Given our extensive knowledge and long practice in litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), we are in a good position to represent our clients in any dispute that may arise from its operations or partnership.
Similarly, our team is adequately equipped to provide all necessary advisory services as it relates to the transportation Industry which may cut across Regulatory Compliances, approvals, licensing, and other related issues.
Nigeria is endowed with large oil/gas, hydro and solar energy resources. It has the potential to generate 12,522 Mega Watt (MW) of electric power from existing plants.
Nigeria’s energy sector has, in recent years, undergone a concerted shift toward increased private sector involvement by targeting policies that govern the electricity market and its regulation. Nigeria, as one of the largest economies on the continent, has a substantial installed generation capacity of more than 13.5 GW. Compared to the country’s peak demand of 8.25 GW, generation should be able to adequately address the national demand. Yet in 2019 the available capacity only amounted to 3.7 GW.
The oil and gas industry is one of the largest sectors in the world in terms of dollar value, generating an estimated $5 trillion in global revenue as of 2022. Oil is crucial to the global economic framework, impacting everything from transportation to heating & electricity to industrial production & manufacturing. The oil and gas industry is broken down into three segments: upstream, midstream, and downstream.
- Upstream, or exploration and production (E&P) companies, find reservoirs and drill oil and gas wells.
- Midstream companies are responsible for transportation from the wells to refineries and downstream companies are responsible for refining and the sale of the finished products.
Niji Oni & Co. constantly engages in proffering legal advice in upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors in the Oil and Gas industry. We are conversant with the drafting and negotiation of goods-supply syndicate contracts, and we provide tailor-made advice on oil and gas servicing agreements as well as the various regulatory issues affecting the oil and gas industry.
We regularly service the aviation industry, and haven worked on large and complex deals, we are able to refract with eagle lenses, those factors that count in ensuring success as a world class organization.
Our team of skilled and experienced lawyers is erudite in Aviation owing to its activities, legal representations and relationship with the regulators and stakeholders – Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and Airlines. It is noteworthy to mention that Niji Oni and Co. advised on the bill for the establishment of a transport safety board for Nigeria and autonomous agency to investigate transportation occurrences and proffer recommendations as a preventive measure. A move in ensuring that Nigeria conforms with the international safety standard on modes of transportation.
Our Aviation Practice centers around registration and servicing of domestic and foreign businesses; Joint Ventures; Aircraft and Infrastructure Financing; Purchase; Sale/Leasebacks; Licencing such as Airline Operating Permit, Permit for Non-Commercial Flights, Air Travel Organizers License and Foreign Carrier Operating Permit; Regulatory Interface and Dispute Resolution such as air accidents and relevant compensation.
At Niji Oni & Co. we are familiar with drafting, revising and modifying various kinds of agreements in the commercial aviation industry, such as wet lease or interchange agreements, code share agreements, contracts with General Sales Agents (GSA’s) or Handling Agents and such other agreements in the sector.
Experiences
The world has become a global village, connected by chords and strings of information and communication technology (ICT) and Nigeria is quickly catching up with the rest of the world, more particularly as numerous businesses have emerged with an online presence.
The technology market cuts across several sectors and given our extensive knowledge and practice across several other sectors, at Niji Oni and Co. we have a deep appreciation for the intricacies in this market.
Our expert team of lawyers aid our clients across matters relating to the regulatory framework for the telecommunications industry, licensing, approvals, permits and other compliances issues with the telecommunications regulatory body, acquisitions of rights of way, financing, operations, competition law, information technology including software, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, debt restructuring and dispute resolution amongst others.
At Niji Oni & Co, we have been able to work with a wide range of network providers, infrastructure engineers, frontend, and back-end developers and have the opportunity of sitting across forums where technological solutions were established to solve sector-specific problems.
Given our expertise in other sectors such as Agriculture, Transportation and Logistics, and Finance, we have been able to easily provide advisory services with respect to the mitigation of risks and exposures among other services.
Experiences
It would not be an overstatement, to claim that Nigeria is endowered with numerous talents and creatives ranging from the fine and applied arts to the creative arts and performing arts such as the movie industry, music industry and other forms of entertainment.
Over the past decade, the entertainment industry has grown tremendously both locally and internationally. The sector, after Agriculture, is the second largest employer in Nigeria, employing more than a million people most especially the Nigerian youths. According to PwC’s Entertainment and Media Outlook Report (2019), there was a projection that the Nigerian entertainment industry would grow from $4.46billion in 2018 to $10.5 billion by the end of 2023.
We cannot go without expressing the informalities associated with the Entertainment Industry such as the unfair contractual arrangements, identity theft, infringement of intellectual property rights, amongst others.
Despite these odds, at Niji Oni & Co, we have witnessed several players within the industry who have shown interest in ascertaining, defining and ensuring that their respective projects establish the rights and obligations necessary for the successful implementation of such projects.
Through this, the Firm has been able to advice on multiple movie and series productions where rights were established and obligations created for all the players involved in the production and directing, casting, screenwriting, and location. The Firm has also been able to advice on the establishment of an agency structure for artistes within the music industry for the purpose of exploration of their rights and collection of royalties.
The growing trend and interests in NFTs have brought about the consciousness of the artist, photographer etc and has begun to expose the Firm to advising on the creativity of artists as the Firm currently advised on the aggregation of artistic work for the purpose of creating multiple ownerships as a way of re-establishing these creativities into stock.
