Legal team size: 8

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

As a strategic business partner and enabler, the Legal Department’s strategy is shaped by the broader business strategy. We see ourselves as business managers with the added advantage of being lawyers, which requires an entrepreneurial mindset when dealing with issues. This means we must be proactive, agile, fast, and flexible, ensuring that other functions seek our direction before taking action rather than coming to us after the damage is done.

When challenges arise, our approach is to collaborate with other functions to resolve them as quickly as possible, rather than immediately resorting to litigation. Litigation remains a last resort. When necessary, we also seek support from the Global Legal team or one of our external legal advisers.

In your opinion, what are the main trends affecting your work now (these can be legal, political, economic, or business-based)?

Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges continue to have a significant impact on businesses. At the same time, changing legislation and regulations are creating new complexities and increasing burdens on companies. Additionally, talent loss due to relocation abroad is becoming an ongoing concern.

What strategic priorities are guiding your legal team into 2025?

Our focus remains on providing strategic business support that enables the company to deliver on its 2025 objectives with minimal or no disruption due to legal or regulatory failures. Team development is also a key priority, ensuring we continue to strengthen our capabilities. Finally, we aim to remain a reference point on governance matters, both internally and externally.