THE LEGAL CONNOISSEUR

  Marriages contracted under the Marriage Act can only be dissolved in accordance with Matrimonial Causes Act (“ MCA ”). These are statutory marriages conducted in the any of the marriage registries in Nigeria (which are popularly referred to as Court marriages) and marriages conducted by churches who are licensed by the Government to conduct statutory marriages. Marriages conducted under native law and custom (aka traditional marriages), marriages in churches that are not licensed (aka white marriages) cannot be dissolved under the MCA. The 2 Year Rule Dissolution of a statutory marriage under the MCA cannot be instituted within 2 years of the commencement of the marriage [1] except with the permission of the Court. [2]   This is called the 2 year rule. There are a few exceptions to this 2 year rule and these include instances where one of the parties to the marriage committed adultery, has refused to consummate the marriage, has committed rape, sodomy or bestiality ...

  Nigeria is the Country with the largest GDP in Africa and SMEs make up for 95% of the business in the Country. Needless to say, SMEs play a very important role the growth and development of the economy of Nigeria. The Government has made some laudable attempts to promote the ease of doing business in Nigeria. In the past three years three laws have been passed to improve business operations in Nigeria. These are the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020, the Finance Act of 2019 and the Finance Act of 2020. We shall review the implications of the these laws on SMEs in Nigeria.   THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT 2020   The Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 repealed the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990 and it was passed into law by an assent of the President on the 7 th of August, 2020.   This aim of this act was to ease and improve the operations of businesses in Nigeria. The Act introduced new modalities like the decrease in the incorporation f...