The 2021 Regulatory Dundies Awards!

From the best of them to the worst-performing. We rank and award the best and worst laws, regulations and draft policies that reshaped the doing of business in Nigeria this year!

Thank you. Thank you everyone. Today, we are closing off the year on a high note with the very first edition of the Regulatory Dundies Awards for year 2021! Someone make some noisseeeeee!!!!

The Regulatory Dundies Award is an annual event, kind of like the Grammys for Nigerian Regulations, which recognizes the best and the worst of regulations, regulators, and policies made within the year.

Being the first time we are ever doing this. A brief description of the exercise is that we hope to highlight the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly part of regulations, while also recognizing or highlighting some of the best and the worst regulators out there. Maybe some of them are reading and would really like to improve based on the feedback given here? Who knows?

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Sponsored Content: This event is proudly sponsored by Nigerian Regulations and its readers worldwide! It has been a great honour assessing the laws, regulations, policies, and directives through the year 2021. We hope to do more in 2022 and would like your support in the coming year!

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Before we proceed, here are some ground rules:

For this year’s edition, there are Seven (7) Award Categories. Nominations were made by a Special Committee of readers and policy analysts. The choice of a winner for each category is decided after a research of data on the laws, regulations, and policies and their overall impact on market operators and stakeholders.

While we do not anticipate any appeals or disagreement on the final winners selected across each category, you can make a comment or send a reply mail if you wish to appeal or disagree with anyof the selections. Thank you!

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MOST INNOVATIVE REGULATOR OF THE YEAR, 2021

The first category for this year’s Regulatory Dundies Award is the ‘Most Innovative Regulator for the Year’. This category recognizes the Regulator that originated some of the best innovative regulatory reforms of the year.

The nominees are: Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council, Central Bank of Nigeria, National Information and Technology Development Agency, and Corporate Affairs Commission.

And the WINNER is the Central Bank of Nigeria which isssued more than 15 key regulatory guidelines and framework for Nigeria’s banking and finance sector.

Winner

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MOST IMPACTFUL REGULATORY REFORM OF THE YEAR, 2021

The second category for the Regulatory Dundies Award is the ‘Most Impactful Regulatory Reform for the Year’. This category recognizes the most impactful law, regulations, policies, or directives that impacted the conduct of business within Nigeria through the course of the year.

The nominees are: The Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the Covid-19 Survival Fund, the Value Added Tax decision in Rivers State v. A.G. Federal Government & FIRS, and the eNaira Guidelines.

And the WINNER is the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, a law that has been a long time in the waiting and was finally signed this year, with far-reaching reforms in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

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DUMBEST REGULATORY REFORM OF THE YEAR

The third category for the Regulatory Dundies Award is the ‘Dumbest Regulatory Reform for the Year’. This category recognizes some of the laws, regulations, directives or policies which was either poorly planned or will have a damaging impact on the doing of business within Nigeria.

The nominees are: The Nigeria Data Protection Law, the Twitter Ban, the NBC Advert for Social Media Platforms to Obtain Licence, the Transport Subsidy plan of the Ministry of Finance, and the Corporate Affairs Commission Regulations.

And the WINNER is the Twitter Ban.

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The Corporate Affairs Commission featuring in Good and Bad categories is giving…

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RISING STAR AWARD OF THE YEAR

The fourth category for the Regulatory Dundies Award is the ‘Rising Star Award for the Year’. This category recognizes the draft of laws, policies, or regulations released during the year and may be impactful if signed off on.

The nominees are: the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the Online Pharmacy Regulations, the CBN Credit Guarantee Guidelines, and the Copyright Bill.

And the WINNER is the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which though passed by the National Assembly, has been rejected by the President.

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HUMANITY AWARD OF THE YEAR

The fifth category for the Regulatory Dundies Award is the ‘Humanity Category Award for the Year’. This category recognizes the laws, regulations, directives or policies which has a direct impact in making the lives of people within Nigeria easier through the course of the year.

The nominees are: the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 and the Covid-19 Targeted Credit Facility by the CBN.

And the WINNER is the Covid-19 Targeted Credit Facility by the CBN.

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NOTABLE MENTION CATEGORY OF THE YEAR

The sixth category for the Regulatory Dundies Award is the ‘Notable Mention Category Award for the Year’. This category recognizes the laws, regulations, directives or policies which do not particularly have any category but are worth noting by viewers due to their immense impact on Nigeria’s business landscape.

The sole nominee and winner for this category is the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission.

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READERS’ CHOICE AWARD: BEST HEADLINE OF THE YEAR

The seventh category for the Regulatory Dundies Award is the ‘Readers’ Choice Award: Best Headline for the Year’. Yes, yes, our readers love the punny headlines so this category ranks the different favourite Newsletter headlines of readers through the year.

The nominees are: “Whether na eNaira, Meffy you’ve got me”, “Bureau De (Can’t) Change”, “Up Nepa Bills”, “You Now Rockin with the SEC” and “Not so Neat”.

And the WINNER is the “Bureau De (Can’t) Change” Newsletter which had the second highest number of views and shares and also won a 3rd Best Article Award at the 2021 National PwC Media Excellence Award.

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And finally, our Special Recognition Categories recognizes some of the volunteers who have worked with us since the beginning of the year.

Special thanks to our standby editors, Asabe Salami, Oladipo Theophilus, Omolola Ambrose, Ohotu Ogbeche and Lord Charles* (*inserted under duress).

A big thanks to our interns, Folakemi Jemilohun, Chinwe Uzokwe, and John Baiyeshea.

Big thanks to our institutional supporters: Jola of Zyden Legal and R.O. and D.S. of TechHive.

And finally, a special shoutout to 2 of my friends, Samuel Olawepo (@SO_Olawepo) and Kayode-Nissi Joshua (@NeeCJoe) who sponsored Nigerian Regulations Merch to mark my birthday sometime last week. Make a comment or reply to this email in case you want a Coffee mug merch and I’d gladly sponsor for the First 10 people who make a request.

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What has happened so far?

Unfortunately, my work schedule has not allowed me the time to write extensively so we have missed a few things. However, here is a quick snapshot of things that happened since we last published.

Forgiven but not forgotten.

This is the fascinating decision of the Lagos State High Court regarding the right of an individual to be forgotten based on the right to privacy and private life under the Nigerian Constitution. The brief gist is that an ex-clergyman approached the High Court, suing Google Nigeria to have the records of his sexual offence and conviction in the United Kingdom, scrubbed from Google, because there were news pieces and blog posts (which would come up on Google when he is searched). He claimed this was a breach of his right to private life and based on the principle of “The Right to be Forgotten”, the Court should grant the reliefs sought. The Court ruled against him based on a technicality. You can access a copy of the judgment here. Hopefully, we can discuss this in more details soon.

SPACing My Fire

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are a new and interesting way of companies raising money and going public without passing through the usual rigour of the capital market. Very recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission released New Rules on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies. You can access a copy of the New Rules here.

Heating Up

Things are heating up on the Nigerian climate scene. Nigeria has a Climate Change Act now. And of course we have a Climate Change Committee as well.

You can access a copy of the Act here.

Taxes Are Coming

Yeah, more changes are coming in to Nigeria’s key tax law - the Finance Act, 2020 through the Nigerian Finance Bill, 2021. The Bill makes some updates to some of the provisions of other tax laws like the Capital Gains Act, Companies Income Tax Act, and many others. You can access a copy of the Bill currently passed before the National Assembly here.

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2022 Regulatory Forecasts

Hmm. Not much can be said yet. Let’s wait for the new year.

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What to expect from us in the new year.

It has been quite an exciting year for all of us at the Nigerian Regulations. Since the first post was published on January 13, 2021, there have altogether been 14 Regulatory Analysis Posts, 480 Subscribers, approx. 6900+ views, 18,000+ words published, 1 PwC Media Award won, and several laws, regulations, and judicial directives assessed in real time.

We are immensely grateful to you the readers, for reading, sharing and for your kind words(they really help keep us going).

On what you can expect from us going into 2022. Yes! Podcasts are finally coming for those who have been asking for it. Our podcasts much like our articles will feature us discussing key updates on regulatory developments. We will be speaking to domain experts to assess the meaning and real world impact of some of the regulations affecting the regulatory landscape in Nigeria.

Also, for those on Twitter, you can expect us to start hosting Spaces from time to time. These short calls will help us all to keep track and make commentary in real-time on the important regulatory developments taking place around Nigeria. More details on this is coming in the Q1, 2022.

No. We are not introducing paid subscriptions yet. Though we are open to voluntary contributions and paid partnerships with individual readers and organizations interested in content like ours.

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What we expect from you.

Please talk about us more to friends and families. We are bigger on organic growth because we feel an integrated community of readers will last longer.

Please give more feedback and be persistent when you feel what we are doing can be done in another way. We will listen and adjust accordingly.

Here is a link to our Feedback Form: https://forms.gle/P6NavWi4PphWTAtKA

Finally.

On behalf of the entire team at Nigerian Regulations, I wish you an amazing 2022 ahead!

Jesutooni Ajiboye, Chief Editor at Nigerian Regulations.