The Summit started with lunch, in association with Dentons ACAS Law Firm, and then with a fully packed room of GCs in attendance kicking off the Summit was keynote speaker Professor Joseph Nnanna, Chief Economist at the Development Bank of Nigeria with a detailed address on the economic market conditions facing West Africa.  

This was followed by our first panel discussion with an overview of data protection best practice, led by Alliance Law Firm, and moderated by Uche Val Obi SAN, founding principal and managing partner at the Firm. He was joined by esteemed panellists, Dr. Bharat Soni, chief information security officer at GTBank, Oluwatoyin Araromi, head compliance & ethics at MTN Nigeria and Abisola Epoyun, senior legal officer at Flutterwave. 

Our second panel was led by Similoluwa Oyelude, Partner at G.Elias and looked at the two hats worn by an employee director that raises a number of issues such as containment, protection, ethics and criminal exposure. Her panel consisted of Fidelis Adewole and Okechukwu Okoro, partners at G.Elias, as well as Ayotola Jagun, chief compliance officer and company secretary at Oando PLC and Temitayo Adegoke, chief legal officer and company secretary at Sterling Bank. 

After a short coffee break our final panel discussion focused on the very important issue of navigating the ESG landscape. The session looked at the increasing need for general counsel to tackle ESG and sustainability as part of their role and the ever-important part of it being integrated into a firms’ business model. The panel was led by Enobong Shittu, senior associate at Olajide Oyewole LLP (A member of DLA Piper Africa) and featured Akeem Adekunbi, senior legal manager at BUA Group, Mayowa Arokodare, senior legal counsel HR & Regulatory at Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company and Irene Robinson-Ayanwale, general counsel and divisional head business support services at Nigerian Exchange Limited. 

As always, a huge thank you to our event partners for all their help in putting together such a fantastic event, as well as everyone in attendance. We look forward to our next event in West Africa.