BUSINESS LAW

Concession has been acknowledged as a valuable tool for Nigeria authority to retain control and shape the supply side of the terminal market, in the absence of full privatization. A Concession is a practice which involves an agreement or a compromise where one side usually a public authority grants a franchisee the right to own, build, finance, upgrade, maintain or operate a public infrastructure, and charge users for the cost of services for a limited period of time under a contractual agreement. This study explores the impact of concessioning on the Nigerian economy, focusing on key sectors such as transport, power, and ports. It highlights how concessioning has led to improved service delivery, increased private sector investment, and job creation. However, a further investigation into the study examines the unintended consequences (otherwise known as the dark side) of privatization of Public Enterprise (PEs) in Nigeria, such as: unemployment due to mass retrenchment of staff, low standard of living resulting from exorbitant price of products and /or service from privatized enterprises, overconcentration of income and wealth in a few hands, regulatory inconsistencies, weak institutional frameworks,
stakeholder resistance, corrupt practices among others. The findings suggest that when
effectively implemented, concessioning can significantly enhance infrastructure development and stimulate economic activity, however, policy makers in Nigeria are to determine the level of confidence they would place in privatization. Policy recommendations include strengthening regulatory oversight as relate to concession, ensuring transparency in the concession process, and enhancing stakeholder engagement to maximize the socio-economic benefits of concessioning in Nigeria

The concept of Copyright has its foundational purpose on the reward for hard work, that oneshould reap where he sows and vice versa. However the achievement of this purpose has provento be more challenging than envisaged. Ever since 1988, the Copyright has made provisions forbodies known as collective societies to go about this function of Protection of copyright, but it might be too generous to say they have done a job well done. A comparison of the Copyright enforcement in Nigeria with that of other foreign states liketheUS would see that these foreign states have higher cases of litigation for copyright. This might beg the question of why this is the case in the first place. Nevertheless the challenges still persist in these foreign states. As far as Nigeria is concerned, would the Copyright Act, 2022helptoameliorate these challenges, giving us better results in terms of enforcement or is this just another chapter from the past? Supposedly, the advent of the internet would no longer be a burden on the administrrabilityandenforcements of copyright in Nigeria, especially with the newly promulgated Copyrights Act of2022. However will this be a conclusion too early made? On the surface level we canseethesteps being made by the Copyrights Commission in collaboration with the Nigerian legislaturetoensure that these rights are better protected, a critical look will also show that the basic problemsmight still remain unsolved. Could it be that these laws along with the functions of the NCCandthe Collective societies , even go against the wishes of the artist they claimto protect?Inasmuch as the purpose for copyright is to reward creativity, these creatives can only be rewardedwith respect to their popularity, but if the Copyrights Act works against this popularity howthencan we achieve the aim of reward?

International trade as a form of commercial transaction is trade that cuts across borders. As it involves transactions outside borders it is met with natural barriers which are either physical or cultural such as distance, language, geography. Due to the inclusion of more than one country there exists different legislation governing the parties to the transaction although sometimes similar in contents. In fact, there also exists a separate and distinct body of rules and legislation only applicable to international trade, not necessarily
belonging to one nation but adopted by several nations when conducting trade across their borders. The differences in legal regimes, modes of conducting business, and even relationship between the involved countries can hamper or facilitate the carrying out of international trade. Some strong examples are: difficulty in employing and relocating qualified nationals of other countries who fall short of the migration requirements of the concerned country; poor visibility of businesses to prospective international clientele due to its
small size or lack of funds to advertise internationally; exchange rates; the practice of de risking (prohibition of wire transfers, credit cards settlements, and even hard foreign currency to a country local bank accounts); ban of the use of hawala also known as underground banking which is simply money transfer without money movement. The last two examples are measures imposed by government and employed by financial
institutions to prevent innocent looking cross border payments from being used in money
laundering, terrorism financing, tax evasion etc. These challenges form serious road blocks to international trade, and it is universal that for trade to occur the willing parties to the transaction must have the capacity to contract. Several regulatory frameworks and enabling platforms have been created by the xvi government to facilitate cross border trade e.g. streamlining customs procedures, single trade window portals, border infrastructure, trade agreements etc. While these platforms have been useful and continue to remain useful in international trade, the challenges to trade are increasing in the face globalization and exponential population growth etc. technology has stepped in to fill some of these gaps, as it may prove too slow to rely solely on the government to create enabling platforms keeping up with the trends of growth or increasing demands of the population. xvii