NIGERIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Adedoyin Afun and Michael Abiiba, Bloomfield LP
or no Nigerian ship-building yard with the capacity to construct the type and size of vessel specified. The NSRO is also responsible for maintaining the cabotage register for vessels eligible to undertake coastal trade in Nigeria. The Cabotage Act established a Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) and also stipulates that a sur - charge of 2% of the contract sum performed by any vessel engaged in coastal trade shall be paid into the CVFF. Enforcement of Foreign Judgments A foreign judgment is required to be registered before it can be enforced in Nigeria. There are two applica - ble statutory regimes in this regard: the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Ordinance Cap 175 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria and Lagos, 1958 (the Ordinance), and the Foreign Judgment (Recipro - cal Enforcement) Act, 2004 (FJA). A party may also bring an action under common law. The FJA provides for the enforcement in Nigeria of final judgments of foreign superior courts that accord reciprocal treatment to judgments of Nigerian courts.
The Ordinance applies to judgments of certain com - monwealth countries, including the United Kingdom. Under the Ordinance, for a foreign judgment to be enforceable in Nigeria, an applicant must file a petition ex parte or on notice to a judge for leave to register the foreign judgment in Nigeria. The petition and the affidavit in support shall be accompanied by a writ - ten address, addressing all the legal issues involved in the matter. If the court finds merit in the petition, it shall order that the foreign judgment be registered as a judgment of the Nigerian court, and the order will usually specify a time limit within which the judgment debtor can apply to set aside the order – usually 14 days if the judgment debtor is within the territory of the registering court, or longer if otherwise. The Ordinance has a six-year limitation period. Under common law, a party seeking to enforce a for - eign judgment in a maritime claim must institute fresh proceedings in the FHC, with the foreign judgment as the basis for the claim. The judgment creditor may apply for the case to be placed on the undefended list, an expedited procedure for cases where there is no reasonable defence to the claim.
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