Fast-rising Nigerian corporate lawyer Akpormerene Ikogho Esq and Managing Partner at Mark Renee Legal Practitioners shared some valuable insights into the legal challenges faced by businesses in Nigeria. He offered expert advice on navigating complex real estate and corporate transactions

Ikogho has spent over 12 years in advising clients on structuring real estate transactions.

He was able to set up his firm, Mark Renee LP,6 years ago to address the deficit in the legal market.
He has assisted buyers in purchasing landed property cumulatively running into billions of naira in Lagos.

Based on his experience in real estate, he was able to prevent scams worth hundreds of millions of naira.

Ikogho admonishes and educates clients on real estate transactions. Don’t trust anybody trying to sell land or a house to you. Always do your investigation before you part with a kobo of your money.

Moreover, once a client contacts us for advice on a land purchase or asks for land verification, the first thing he does is to enquire for copies of the land document. If the seller or agent is unwilling to provide them he immediately asks the client to walk away from the deal.

What spurred your interest in becoming a lawyer?

My name is Akpor Ikogho. My formative years were spent in between Lagos, Edo and Delta States.I like to believe that I am a product of these three locations. In my younger years, I read an article about late Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, and his campaign on Human Rights in the country during the military junta, this stirred up my interest to become a lawyer. My compassion for humanity and the preservation of life and property was birthed. However, presently at Mark Renee LP, we have carved a niche for ourselves in the Corporate law and practice aspect of law.

What led to a shift in focus, and can you say your aspirations and dreams have been met over time?

At Mark Renee LP, our aspirations are unending because as they say, growth is continuous. We aim to be one of the biggest corporate law firms in the country and as such, every professional decision is geared towards achieving that objective.

Our shift in the area of law was borne out of the knowledge that most start-ups are faced with certain legal difficulties and as such many don’t scale past the first five years of existence.
Over time, we have advised and helped several startups with benefiting from the numerous incentives mapped out by the government, and also escape the hurdles of starting a company.

Markrenee is a law firm that caters primarily to businesses. what are some of the services it offers and how the general public take advantage of such services?

At Mark Renee LP we pride ourselves on being the right-hand man of the entrepreneur. we try to take the burden of legal and regulatory compliance off the hands of the entrepreneur so he can focus on his core mandate. We assist with the registration of an organization with all the relevant regulatory bodies; we ensure statutory compliance with all the relevant laws, advise clients on Tax regulations and also advise on how they can cash in on the various incentives open to them.

Can you tell us some of the success stories of Markrenee in terms of customer satisfaction that make it stand out from others?

Well, ethically lawyers aren’t allowed to go into specifics of what they do, but we represent a variety of High net worth individuals. I was discussing with my partner in charge of litigation and he remarked that in our 6 years plus of existence, none of our corporate clients on retainer have ever been sued. This is something we pride ourselves in. Our job isn’t to resolve issues or disputes. Our main focus is to prevent issues. We do this by obsessively insisting on the right thing being done, and, at the right time.

Sometimes, people think they either don’t need a lawyer or getting a lawyer is expensive, but the truth is they’re wrong, you do need a lawyer, and the price for refusing to hire a lawyer is in fact damaging.

What are the challenges most young adults face as regards finance?
They pull the cart before the horse and fail to seek good counsel. You find young adults comparing themselves with high-net-worth individuals, these are persons who are more experienced and have actually invested their time and energy into their craft. Many young adults want to wake up as billionaires, but life doesn’t work that way, you have to till the soil.

What propelled the idea to set up Markrenee LP
I decided to set up Markrenee LP with the aim of providing bespoke corporate legal services to clients and carve our name in gold in the legal services marketplace.

What are the innovations your business group wants to bring to the entrepreneurship circle?

What are the challenges and prospects for startup and if you will advise businesses what should they focus on as we approach 2024.

Unhealthy business environment in terms of infrastructure, inadequate or bad business policies, inadequate funding, and brain drain. These are some of the major issues hindering the growth of startups in Nigeria.

We currently represent a number of startups and the common thread seems to be difficulty with the regulatory agencies . some mundane things can be a hassle in nigeria. The new minister of science and technology seems to be the right man for the job.

I think every startup or business should position themselves for success in 2024.

What are the opportunities open to young adults considering the entrepreneurship or startup journey with little capital.

As a business owner in Nigeria, I understand that the tides are currently rough and that the economic hardship is like never before. I advise entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs to get things right from the get-go. That is to start small. Get market validation of your product before you attempt to upscale. Do not be solely dependent on your loved ones for funding, build your products such that nobody would think you’re emotionally blackmailing them to patronize you.

The Nigerian government has also put things in place to help entrepreneurs. There are incentives under the Nigerian Finance Act. The are also some incentives under the Nigerian Startup Act. We also hear that Lagos State is in the process of passing the Lagos Startup Act.