NIGERIA LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Chinyerugo Ugoji, Tiwalola Osazuwa, Rebecca Ebokpo, Jibrin Dasun, Peretimi Akinmodun, Onyinyechi Chima and Princess Otah, ǼLEX
1. Legal System 1.1 Legal System and Judicial Order Nigeria operates a mixed legal system that is sourced from received English law, common law, customary law and Sharia law. The judicial system is hierarchical in nature and divided between federal and state jurisdictions. The judicial order is also divided between origi - nal and appellate jurisdictions, with the Supreme Court being the highest court. There are also some specialised courts and tri - bunals that are established by statute for dealing with special matters, such as: • the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, which deals with labour and employment disputes; • the Investment and Securities Tribunal, which deals with capital markets-related issues; • the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal, which deals with competition issues and consumer rights violations; and • the Tax Appeal Tribunal, which deals with tax issues. These specialised courts/tribunals have original jurisdiction over the matters assigned to them by law, while appeals from the courts/tribunals will follow the hierarchical order provided in the law that set them up. 2. Restrictions on Foreign Investments 2.1 Approval of Foreign Investments Nigeria operates an open economy and encour - ages the inflow of foreign investment by way of foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign port - folio investment (FPI). Foreigners interested in
FDI or FPI are required to take up shares in an existing company or register a business at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) with a mini - mum share capital of NGN100 million. A com - pany with foreign participation is also required to obtain a business registration certificate and business permit from the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) and the Federal Ministry of Interior, respectively. Therefore, every foreign-owned company must be incorporated locally before commencing business in Nigeria, except companies that have been granted exemption under the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 or its preceding leg - islation, or companies that are exempted under any treaty to which Nigeria is a party. In addition, the Business Facilitation Act 2023 provides for the expansion of the class of foreign companies exempted from the incorporation requirement to include foreign companies granted an exemp - tion under extant National Assembly Acts. The Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 fur - ther provides for circumstances where a foreign company can apply to the Minister for Trade for exemption from registration where such foreign company falls under the following categories: • foreign companies invited to Nigeria by or with the approval of the federal government to execute any specified individual project; • foreign companies that are in Nigeria for the execution of specific individual loan projects on behalf of a donor country or international organisation; • foreign government-owned companies engaged solely in export promotion activities; and • engineering consultants and technical experts engaged on any individual specialist project under contract with any of the governments
564 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook