Corporate Personality in Nigerian Law: The Salomon Principle and the Veil of Incorporation

in 300 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Company Law, Educational Articles

Every year in Nigeria, thousands of companies are incorporated through the Corporate Affairs Commission. The promoters sign the memorandum of association, pay the prescribed fees, and receive their certificate of incorporation. What many of them do not immediately grasp is that something remarkable has happened at the moment that certificate is issued: a new legal person has come into existence. Not a human person, but a person nonetheless, one capable of owning property, entering contracts, suing and being sued, and outliving every human being who created it. This is the doctrine of corporate personality, and it is the single most foundational...

26 April

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History of Company Law in Nigeria: From Trade by Barter to CAMA 2020

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 300 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Company Law, Educational Articles, Exam Preparation, Study Resources, Study Tips

Before the word "company" meant anything to the people of the territory now called Nigeria, commerce was already alive. Markets thrived. Goods changed hands. Farmers, hunters, and craftsmen exchanged what they had for what they needed. There were no registration numbers, no memoranda of association, no Corporate Affairs Commission. Trade simply happened, governed by trust, custom, and community. That world was transformed, gradually and then decisively, by the arrival of foreign traders, colonial administration, and the legislative machinery they brought with them. The history of company law in Nigeria is not merely an account of statutes and ordinances. It is the...