Current Business Challenges in Nigeria: Tax, Regulatory Compliance and Conflict of Interests

This webinar is designed to educate businesses and the general public on the above challenges and how to eliminate or mitigate them.

In particular, participants will learn about the traditional or general laws that businesses must comply with – including a highlight on some industry-specific legal regimes as applicable in the Nigerian commercial environment.

Additionally, the webinar will consider compliance policies that businesses must put in place to protect their integrity and reputation, especially, conflict of interests.

Attention will be paid to policies relating to giving and receiving of gifts – especially now that gift-giving season, Christmas, is around the corner. The webinar will examine the issue of disclosure in conflict of interests’ situations and whether it is enough to cure conflict of interest.

Join Zelda Akindele, Dr Jude Odinkonigbo, Ozim Obasi, and Ocheme Stephen Abu as they discuss the pitfalls, threats faced by business owners, employees, legal advisors and managers in Nigeria.

Date: Monday, 31st October 2022.

Time: 10 am

Venue: Zoom Meeting.

Click here to register: https://bit.ly/3eX3qnP

Moderator: Zelda Akindele

Zelda is a Partner in TEMPLARS Finance & Investments Practice Group.

She holds a Master of Laws in Banking and Finance from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Bristol.

Prior to joining TEMPLARS, Zelda worked as in-house counsel at a leading Nigerian investment bankand before that, began her career in the London and Milan offices of Clifford Chance LLP. She is admitted to practise in Nigeria and in England & Wales and is one of a handful of female lawyers recognized as an IFLR 1000 Woman Leader in the Nigerian market for 2021 and was also recognised as a leading lawyer by IFLR 1000 and Chambers Global.

Zelda sits on the Finance and M&A teams at Templars and has almost 20 years’ experience advising on mergers & acquisitions, Nigerian competition law matters (FCCPC and sector-specific), divestments, joint ventures, private equity, acquisition finance, corporate finance, structured finance, infrastructure, and project finance. She serves as Head of the Competition Law practice at Templars.

Speakers:

Dr. Jude Odinkonigbo

Jude is a Counsel in TEMPLARS and one of the leaders in the firms Investigations, White-Collar Defence and Compliance, Dispute Resolution and Tax Practice Groups.

He holds a PhD in Taxation Law & Policy from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada. He is an alumnus of Yale Law School, Yale University, USA – where he obtained his LL.M in International Taxation Law. He also holds another LL.M in Intellectual Property Law from the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Canada.

Jude has 20 years’ experience in Litigation and Arbitration, Tax Advisory and Corporate and Commercial Law. He has significant industry experience advising local and International clients on a broad range of matters including litigation, compliance and regulatory issues, corporate structuring and reorganizations, domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions as well transfer pricing.

An academic, Jude serves as a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he teaches different aspects of Nigerian Tax Laws and International Taxation.

He is recognized as a Notable practitioner in the IFLR 1000 guide to the world’s leading financial and corporate law firms.

Ozim Obasi

Ozim Ifeoma Obasi is a Commercial and Energy Lawyer with over 20 years industry experience. She is currently working with General Electric as the Executive General Counsel for Africa, with the overall responsibility for GE’s brand, legal and compliance risk mitigation in the over 20 countries where GE has footprint in Sub-Saharan Africa.

She is best described as a business lawyer, with multi-jurisdictional expertise in the Energy Industry, Commercial Transactions, Corporate Practice, Regulatory Compliance, Legal Advisory Services, Project Finance, Localization, Joint Ventures and Business Development.

Ocheme Stephen Abu

Ocheme is the Director of Legal, Advisory and Litigation Department of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). He oversees this very important department of the FIRS. He is also the Chairman of Taxation and Finance Committee of the African Bar Association.

Abu is an alumnus of the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria; a Fellow of the Institute of Debt Recovery Practitioners of Nigeria; a member of Nigerian Bar Association and a member of the International Dispute Resolution Institute.

He has attended many local and international events, training, workshops and conferences in tax, arbitration, debt recovery and economic management of developing countries.