NIGERIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Adeyinka Aderemi, Chinasa Unaegbunam, Omono Blessing Omaghomi and Ibukun Enigbokan, Streamsowers & Köhn
jurisdiction of either the contract or the seat of arbitration; (b) the award deals with a dispute that does not fall within the terms of the submission to arbi- tration; (c) the composition of the arbitral tribunal, or the arbitral procedure, was not in accordance with the agreement of the parties; or (d) the award has been set aside by a court at the seat of arbitration; or • if the court finds that the subject matter of the dispute is not arbitrable under Nigerian law, or that enforcement of the award would be against public policy, as discussed in 4.1 Legal Issues Concern- ing Enforcement of Arbitral Awards . The application for the enforcement of arbitral awards must be filed within six years of the date of delivery of the award. 4.4 Process of Enforcing Arbitral Awards Enforcement of Domestic Arbitral Awards In Nigeria, the available means of enforcing an arbi - tral award depend on the laws of the place where the award is to be enforced. The AMA provides frameworks for the enforcing of arbitral awards in Nigeria, and the Lagos Arbitration Law 2011 provides for modes of enforcement of arbi - tral awards and interim measures. The appropriate procedure for enforcing a domestic award depends on the type of arbitral proceedings and the parties involved. Order 43 Rule 1 of the High Court of Lagos State Civil Procedure Rules 2019 states that all applications shall be by motion, while Order 43 Rule 3 (1) states that every motion shall be on notice, unless otherwise provided or permitted by any law or rules. Therefore, an application for the enforcement of arbitral awards thereunder would be by a motion on notice. Order 52 Rule 16 (1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019 provides that an application for enforcement of an award can be made through a motion ex parte (without notice to the other party). A widely held view is that the courts ought to order
the application to be brought on notice to accord the other party the right to a fair hearing. Furthermore, parties seeking to enforce an award must provide the arbitration agreement or, in the alternative, a certified copy of the arbitration agreement and the original arbitral award or a certified copy of the initial arbitral award, as provided under Section 32 (2) of the AMA. These documents would be attached to an affidavit in support of the application for the enforce - ment of arbitral awards. Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards Under the provisions of Section 91 (5) of the AMA, an arbitration is international if: • the parties to an arbitration agreement have their places of business in different countries at the time of the conclusion of that agreement; • the seat of the arbitration, if determined under the arbitration agreement, or any place where a sub - stantial part of the obligations of the commercial relationship is to be performed or the place with which the subject matter of the dispute is most closely connected is situated outside the state in which the parties have their place of business; or • the parties have expressly agreed that the subject matter of the arbitration agreement relates to more than one state. The award emanating from an international arbitration can be enforced by any of the following procedures. • Registration of the Award Under the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act, 1990, Cap 1525, Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 – Section 2 thereof defines foreign judgments as arbitral awards. The award will be registered with the Nigerian court that has jurisdiction to hear the dispute, and it will be enforced as the judgment of the court. • Instituting an Action to Enforce the Award – in this case, a plaintiff will be required to prove to the court that there is an arbitration agreement, an arbitration award and an absence of irregularity in the conduct of the arbitration. • Enforcement Under the AMA – the AMA provides that an arbitral award is binding and enforceable
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