The corporate and commercial law practice group at Hans Offia & Associates provides an extensive suite of corporate and commercial-focused legal advisory services to corporate organizations, private companies, public listed companies and international companies with business operations in Nigeria. In this regard, we help our institutional clients and companies under our portfolio to navigate Nigeria’s complex business stratosphere.
Nigeria has a very robust companies and allied matters regime, as regulated by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and of course, the Federal High Court of Nigeria which has exclusive jurisdiction to handle company matters within Nigeria.
At Hans Offia & Associates, our corporate and commercial law team provides comprehensive and strategic legal advice and support to our corporate clients, to help them navigate through Nigeria’s seemingly opaque regulatory environment. We pride ourselves on keeping our fingers on the heartbeat of all necessary regulatory authorities as we watch for changes in the regulatory landscape which can impart our clients and then we proactively work to keep our corporate clients ahead of these rapidly evolving regulations for their optimal business operations in the sectors they operate in. This ensures that their businesses are not disrupted in any way; in other words, we do the heavy lifting for them while they focus on their core work competences.
We provide comprehensive advisory services to our clients, including stellar step-b-step guidance on the various aspects of corporate and commercial law in Nigeria. We help individuals make the move from being personally liable in their businesses, to forming separate legal entities; companies. We form partnerships, joint ventures, cooperatives, incorporated trustees for our clients. We also advise on international trade, regulatory compliance, liquidations and financing.
Hans Offia & Associates acts for a wide range of corporate clients, working across various industry sectors. We are also solicitors to some international companies with going concerns within Nigeria, advising them on transaction structure, negotiating and also drafting contract documentation for them for use in Nigeria.
Hans Offia & Associates’ Corporate and Commercial Law Sub-Practice Areas
The work of the corporate and commercial law practice group at Hans Offia & Associates divests into these sub-practices:
Company Secretarial Services
Hans Offia & Associates provides business advisory services where we engage our clients to find out their needs, then help Float the best type of business entity that will be best suited for their business concerns within Nigeria. We also undertake company registrations, business name reservations and registration, and the registration of incorporated trustees of whatever cause our clients are interested in. These are done at the Corporate Affairs Commission in Abakaliki.
Hans Offia & Associates also routinely advises foreign companies seeking to enter into Nigeria; we advise on all regulatory requirements they need to meet in order to participate as business entities within Nigeria. While engaged, we also help to register them with the appropriate regulatory bodies in Nigeria, obtain all necessary business permits, and procure their company seal and common seal which will be in our custody as their trusted secretaries as they begin operations in Nigeria.
As your Legal Secretary, Hans Offia & Associates would perform the following duties:
- Ensure proper filling and filing of appropriate statutory forms
- Undertake the registration of your company, business name, or incorporated trustees, depending on your business needs.
- Perform all post-incorporation filings and matters for your company at the Corporate Affairs Commission.
- Draft, prepare and dispatch all statutory notices required by Law to be sent to shareholders and external auditors.
- File all special resolutions made at meetings of your company on prescribed forms, and within the period as prescribed by Law.
- Arrange for general meetings, directors’ meetings, and keep appropriate minutes of meeting as required by law.
- Maintain minutes books and all other statutory books required by law to be kept by your company
- Have custody and use of your Company’s common seal for official business purposes.
- Preparing general meeting notices to be sent to your company shareholders via their designated addresses (both physical and electronic).
- Attend company meetings and preparing meetings for those meetings, to be kept in the company’s Minutes book.
- Ensure that we advise your company on compliance requirements with all applicable Regulations i.e. corporate governance obligations, filing obligations and other requirements by the Companies and Allied Matters Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, where applicable.
- Provision of all other ancillary services.
Does your company needs the services of professional lawyers to handle your company secretarial duties, all statutory filings as required by law and ensure your company’s compliance with Regulatory authorities and extant Laws? Contact us to learn more about how we can assist your business with its legal needs. For specialist, focused and practical advice on different aspects of the law across our practice areas, we invite you to please contact our Partner Hans Soni Offia on +2348033389055.
For more information about our law firm, our services and our technical capabilities, we invite you to download our Firm’s Capability Statement which is available here. Alternatively, please click >>>> “Hans Offia & Associates Capability Statement/Brochure” to download.