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  • EDITOR'S CHOICE
  • Jan 01, 2022
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  • Comments Off on OKUTEPA QUERIES PAYMENT OF PRACTISING FEE VIA NBA PORTAL

OKUTEPA QUERIES PAYMENT OF PRACTISING FEE VIA NBA PORTAL

Former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lead Prosecutor at the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), Mr. Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) has challenged the legality of lawyers paying the annual Bar Practice Fee (BPF) through an NBA portal.

In a post he made today on a CITY LAWYER WhatsAPP platform while tagging an NBA Notice on payment of BPF, the fiery senior lawyer argued that there is no legal basis for NBA to receive the fee from lawyers, saying: “where does NBA derive its powers to collect practising from lawyers and direct that payment shall be online through portal created by NBA.”

He stated that the Legal Practitioners Act mandates only the “Registrar” to collect BPF, saying: “How did we come to the practice of paying our bar practising fees through the portal of NBA? Can somebody guide me? As lawyers, we must not follow the rules without the backing of the law.”

It is recalled that NBA had issued a notice to members thus: “As you may already be aware, the National Executive Council (“NEC”) of the Nigerian Bar Association (“NBA”), at its last NEC meeting held in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on the 16th day of December 2021, resolved that manual Bar Practicing Fee (“BPF”) payments be jettisoned. Consequently, BPF payments can only be made through the NBA Online Payment Portal, with effect from the 1st day of January 2022. Members can now make individual or group payments through the Portal.”

The full text of Okutepa’s post made on his verified handle is below:

In the light of the provisions of the legal practitioner Act, particularly section 7 thereof which is yet to be amended,where does NBA derive its powers to collect practising from lawyers and direct that payment shall be online through portal created by NBA. For added measures, this is what LPA says in section 7 thereof: No legal practitioner (other than such a person as is mentioned in subsection (3) of section 2 of this Act) shall be accorded the right of audience in any court in Nigeria in any year, unless he has paid to the Registrar in respect of that year, a practising fee as is from time to time prescribed by the Attorney‐General of the Federation after consultation with the association.

[1999 No. 31.]

(3) The Registrar shall‐

(a) issue to every person by whom a practising fee is paid in respect of any year a receipt for the fee in the prescribed form; and

(b) as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of January in each year and thereafter from time to time during the year as he considers appropriate cause to be printed in the prescribed form and put on sale a list or supplementary list of the legal practitioners by whom practising fees have been paid in respect of that year; and

(c) pay over to the Association as soon as may be after the end of each year a sum equal to nine tenths of the aggregate amount of the practising fees received by him in pursuance of this section during the year,

and a receipt purporting to be issued and list purporting to be printed in pursuance of this subsection in respect of any year shall be evidence that the person named in the receipt or, as the case may be, that any person named in the list has paid to the Registrar the practising fee in respect of that year.

As lawyers, we must do things according to law. The payment of practising fees is a statutory duty and a creation of law. The law sets/ directs how the payments are to be made by lawyers and who is to issue receipts. It also sets out how NBA should benefit from the payments made by lawyers. How did we come to the practice of paying our bar practising fees through the portal of NBA? Can somebody guide me? As lawyers, we must not follow the rules without the backing of the law.

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  • EDITOR'S CHOICE
  • Mar 13, 2021
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  • Comments Off on REVALIDATION: NBA REJECTS MOVE, BLASTS CAC OVER POOR SERVICES

REVALIDATION: NBA REJECTS MOVE, BLASTS CAC OVER POOR SERVICES

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has carpeted the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) over moves to charge each lawyer N10,000 to enable them revalidate their status as CAC accredited agents.

In a statement made available to CITY LAWYER, the lawyers’ body described the revalidation exercise as “insensitive,” adding that it “smacks of utter bad faith on the part of the CAC to proceed with this policy without due consultation with the NBA whose members make up over 80% of the customer base of the CAC.” The NBA also lampooned the nation’s corporate registry over persistent poor services.

CITY LAWYER reliably gathered from a source at NBA HOUSE that the NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata had vigorously engaged the CAC leadership immediately news of the revalidation exercise was made public, leading to “slight relaxation” announced by the national registry.

Below is the full text of the NBA statement.

CAC DIRECTIVE ON RE-VALIDATION OF ACCREDITED AGENTS: THE POSITION OF THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION

The attention of the Nigerian Bar Association (“NBA”) has been drawn to a directive credited to the
Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (“CAC”) to the effect that accredited agents of
the CAC, including lawyers, are to revalidate their status as agents with the CAC and pay the sum of
Ten Thousand Naira (₦10,000), failing which the defaulting agents may be unable to access the CAC’s
Portal.

Since the news broke out, the NBA has been engaging with the CAC on this subject. The ostensible
reason given by the CAC for this directive is to checkmate the spate of proxy interactions with the
Portal and to weed out from the CAC’s Database, accredited agents who are either now deceased or
have emigrated out of the country and/or changed their location.

Whilst this objective may be well intended, the position of the NBA on the issue is as follows:
1. The NBA takes the view that it is both insensitive and smacks of utter bad faith on the part of the
CAC to proceed with this policy without due consultation with the NBA whose members make up
over 80% of the customer base of the CAC. This is in spite of the fact that the NBA-CAC Task Force
has been in constant touch with the CAC regarding improving efficiency and processes at the CAC.

2. While we appreciate that following engagements with the CAC, the Commission has extended the
deadline from 31st March 2021 to 10th June 2021 and has also clarified that the payment will be
one-off fee, the NBA remains of the view that it is possible to achieve a clean database of accredited
agents by requiring those who had been previously accredited by the CAC to simply update and
revalidate their records on the CAC portal (at no cost) or lose their accreditation by the new
deadline. The obligatory charge imposed by the CAC should not apply to existing users but only
to those customers who have never been accredited by the CAC and who now seek to be part of
the system.

3. The NBA is deeply concerned about the timing of this policy, which is coming at a time when many
lawyers have endured epileptic services from the CAC and have either lost the faith of their clients
or have been de-briefed by clients who believe that the lawyers treat their instructions with levity.
This state of affairs is what has led to the establishment of the NBA-CAC Taskforce to facilitate
regular interface with the CAC in resolving issues associated with the its services. Available
reports from the Taskforce indicate that in spite of its engagement with the CAC, the service levels
are still quite abysmal.

4. The NBA strongly urges the CAC to reconsider its position with respect to the payment of the
revalidation fee by existing users, and more importantly to continue to work assiduously towards
improving customer experience by resolving the several complaints by users of the system and
enhancing efficiency. Resolving these issues will not only be beneficial to the CAC and its
customers but will significantly advance the Federal Government’s Policy on Ease of Doing
Business in Nigeria.

Members of the NBA can be assured that we will continue to engage the CAC on these and other related
issues that affect their dealings with the Commission.

OLUMIDE AKPATA
NBA PRESIDENT
12th March, 2021

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