Nigeria: Corporate and Company Law

Gas flaring has been a source of pollution in the Niger Delta region for more than six decades, polluting the atmosphere the soil, and eroding the lives of communities living in one of the most oil-rich regions in Africa. The Nigerian government's efforts at solving this environmental problem have been characterized by delay and capture. The enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act 20212 represents the most ambitious legislative attempt yet to bring routine flaring to an end, through an explicit statutory prohibition, mandatory monetisation planning, and a new institutional architecture anchored around the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (‘SEC’), the National Pension Commission (‘PenCom’), the Nigeria Revenue Service (‘NRS’), the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (‘FRCN’), the Nigeria Immigration Service (‘NRS’), the Nigerian Exchange Group (‘NGX’)...

One of the objectives of the new tax laws is to ‘optimize fiscal revenue’. It is expected that the implementation of the laws will double tax-to-GDP ratio in the short run. This is by widening the tax net while providing incentives to already-compliant taxpayers to pay more tax. The tax laws also increase the power of the tax authorities to have access to hitherto private banking records to discourage tax evasion.