Nigeria; Land of Attraction
As a diverse country, both geographically & climatic, a lawyer in Nigeria today should be very competitive with the country’s abundance in natural resources, especially petroleum & natural gas.
With such great opportunities, it is hard to believe that only 50.3% of the Nigerian population are of urban nature, with densely-populated settlements located along the coast lying in the south of the country & on the West Coast of Africa. 850 KM long, Nigeria’s coastline hosts major economic activities.
Aside from Oil & Gas & Agriculture that already mentioned, fishing, shipping, sand-mining, and tourism are of utmost importance for Nigerian people.
With 40% of Nigerian people living below the poverty line based on a report dated Jan 2022, the country is regarded as the most populous black nation on earth.
The Nigerian Film Industry (Nollywood) is the second-largest film producer globally. The Industry contributed 2.3% (NGN 239 B$ 575,550,479) to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016.
Furthermore, fashion, technology, and creativity have a great deal of importance in Nigeria, making the country among pioneers in Africa. With vibrant and friendly people & huge population diversity, tourism is among the most important industries in the country.
Though experiencing a 1.6% decrease in contribution to GDP versus 2019, Nigeria had a total of $11 Billion in 2020 in the travel & tourism section (2.8% of GDP)
Nigeria; Land of Threats
Although there is a land of opportunities in Africa due to its natural resources, it is considered one of the least peaceful countries standing 17th in the global ranking.
Child sexual abuse, corruption, domestic violence, human trafficking, kidnapping, murder, piracy, terrorism & organized crime with mafia-style are crimes that make the country dangerous to travel, especially for westerners.
Coastal areas in the south i.e., Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, and Rivers states – except for Port Harcourt – are all dangerous to travel, let alone northern states as in Kaduna. In the first six months of 2021, the government reported 1,723 people kidnapped in Kaduna, compared with nearly 2,000 for the entire previous year.
To read Part 1, read the article below:
Lawyers in Nigeria; Discovering No Man’s Land (Part 1)
Lawyer in Nigeria Today
Nelson Mandela, who graduated in law from the University of Fort Hare and University of Witwatersrand, once said: “The world will not respect Africa until Nigeria earns that respect.”
When a lawyer as iconic as Mandela quotes the same, it indicates the importance of this country for the African continent;
But How is Being a Lawyer in Nigeria?
There is one general category of Nigerian lawyers; all of them are admitted to the bar as barristers and solicitors of the Supreme Court without any variety in roles.
However, lawyers with more than 10-year experience consider Senior Advocates of Nigeria to stand as a privilege to members of the legal profession.
To become a lawyer there, one should successfully finish a 5-year undergraduate program in legal education from any Nigerian University that has an accredited Faculty of Law to graduate as bachelor’s cum laude in Law (LLB).
The next stage is a year of bar advocacy tutelage at one of the Nigerian Law School campuses (Bar part II) to obtain a qualifying certificate (BL).
To be qualified as a lawyer, the applicant must satisfy the Body of Benchers that the person is of good character and produce a qualifying certificate to the benchers.
Therefore, it should be mentioned that the process is yet a simple task. A lawyer in Nigeria regards an intellectual character in a country of +211 Million people.
Find a Lawyer in Nigeria
The unemployment rate in this African country has increased to 53% percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 27.10 percent in the second quarter of 2020, based on the National Bureau of Statistics. It should be stated that youth unemployment stood at 40% within the same timeline!
Despite the data, finding a lawyer in Nigeria is not a difficult job for corporations or SMEs. The country now has 197,015 Lawyers who are approximately 4,350 successful candidates of the Nigerian Law School who will enter the bar each year.
How Much Does a Lawyer Charges in Nigeria?
It is worth mentioning that the number of cases referred to Nigeria courts’ ratio to the whole population is 0.00019% according to the 2018/2019 legal year. The Supreme Court (1,874), Court of Appeal (9,479) & FCT High Court (30,582) had 41,930 cases which could be considered as nothing per capita.
In conclusion, with the consideration of the ratio of the number of cases to the number of lawyers (0.21%), being a high-paid lawyer in there is not a simple job. Some lawyers earn only NGN 15,000 ($37) monthly which makes the average of approximately NGN 50,000 ($121) per month.
Nigerian Lawyers’ Salary Structure
The lawyers are divided into four levels in this country: Interns, Junior Associates, Senior Associates, and Partners. The criteria definition could be as follows:
Interns: Those who have yet been employed by law firms. After graduation, an intern could be recruited on a temporary or short-term basis by law firms though the salary is variable from NGN 5,000 ($12.04) to NGN 30,000 ($72.24) per month.
Junior Associates: Those who are recruited to law firms on a part-time or pay-per-hour basis. Their salary is variable from NGN 15,000 ($36.12) to NGN 100,000 ($240.81) per month.
Senior Associates: Those who are recruited full-time by law firms & organizations & have already had 3-5 years of experience under their belt. Their salary is variable from NGN 50,000 ($120.41) to NGN 300,000 ($722.45) per month.
Partners: They are called Big Bosses in a legal organization. They are experienced, knowledgeable lawyers who have already established their own business or partnered with another big boss in Nigeria. Depending on how big their law firm is, their average salary varies from NGN 100,000 ($240.82) to NGN 1,000,000 ($2,408.16) per month.
Epilogue
As said in these two articles, the pros and cons of Nigeria are being understood. But with knowledge and advice from professionals in that area, you can make the bests from working and investing there.
So either you’re an investor who wants to invest in there or a citizen in there, you might have different needs in there, like any other place. Considering the different practice areas and different needs that an individual or an entity may bump into, you might be puzzled about how to manage all these things!
Here in LegaMart, we have the whole package 0-100 for your every legal need, and on the bright side, we offer you a free Consultancy.
Whether you’re seeking an immigration lawyer or investing opportunities in Nigeria, we in LegaMart can serve you all.