Email onyinye.okafor@uubo.org

Phone +234 14622307-12; 2774921-2

AddressSt Nicholas House, (10th, 12th & 13th Floors), Catholic Mission Street, Lagos, Nigeria.

Onyinye Okafor

Partner

Profile

Onyinye Okafor is a partner in the firm’s Banking & Finance and Corporate Advisory departments. Her specialisations include corporate and project finance, debt restructuring, structured finance, trade finance, fintech, debt capital markets, insolvency and corporate advisory. Onyinye regularly advises international banks such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank, etc on derivatives and structured finance transactions and was a key member of the team that reviewed the netting provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020.

Onyinye is very familiar with finance and investment related documents including the LMA investment and leveraged finance documents, and she drafts, reviews and negotiates these documents on a regular basis together with drafting any related local law security documents (where required). She has been involved in the structuring and financing of various projects and advises international and local financial institutions on a day to day basis on issues concerning the creation and perfection of security and foreign exchange issues. She has advised on many DFI financing and has worked with several DFIs including IFC, FMO, Proparco, AFDD, AFC, IFAD etc.

She has also advised on and led many syndicated transactions in the corporate finance sphere including advising a group of Nigerian banks led by Citibank Nigeria Limited on a NGN200 billion medium term facility provided to MTN Nigeria Communications Limited; advising Ecobank Nigeria Limited and a club of Nigerian Banks in respect of a refinancing facility of billion provided to IHS Nigeria Limited. She also advised the Barak Fund SPC in relation to a trade finance facility to Global Foodpro Holdings Limited for the exportation of Cashew and ABSA in respect of a structured inventory finance facility to Valency International Trading PTE secured with relevant inventory in Nigeria. She has opined on many the enforceability of close-out netting provisions and contingent liabilities in structured finance transactions.

Onyinye is a member of the Sustainable Finance Sub-Committee of the Debt Capital Market Programme and a member of the Legal & Risk Management Thematic Area Meeting of the Financial Centre for Sustainability. She has written articles on cross-border finance and security including the IFLR Cross-Border Financing Report and Thomson Reuters Practical Law finance guide. Onyinye facilitates training sessions including the LMA documentation training session, in-house training sessions for clients on Credit and Security and Project Finance sessions for new lawyers within the Firm. Onyinye has been recognised for her work on the banking and finance space by both IFLR 1000 and Legal 500.

Career

2018
Partner
2015
Managing Associate, Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie
2010
Senior Associate, Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie
2009
Associate, Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, Lagos
2008
Visiting Associate, Denton Wilde Sapte LLP, London
2008
Intern, BaFin, Frankfurt Germany
2005
Associate, Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, Lagos
2004
Intern, Okocha & Okocha, Manuchim Chambers, Port Harcourt
2003
Intern, Sofunde, Osakwe, Ogundipe & Belgore, Lagos

Qualifications

2015
Middlesex University Post Graduate, Certificate in mechanics of Project Finance
2008
Goethe University Frankfurt, LL.M Finance
2004
Nigerian Law School Victoria Island Lagos, BL
2002
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, LL.B.

Professional Membership

Nigerian Bar Association

Bar Admissions

2004
Nigeria
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Recognition

We are pleased to announce that our Banking, Finance and Capital Markets partner, Onyinye Okafor, has been recommended and ranked as a “Next Generation Partner” for her Banking, Finance and Capital Markets work in The Legal500 Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) 2020 edition rankings research.

The rankings report is available to view here: https://lnkd.in/g5sup-K

UUBO is proud to announce that our Partner, Onyinye Okafor, has been ranked as “Rising Star Partner” in the 31st edition of the IFLR1000 ’s jurisdiction rankings for Nigeria.
Onyinye has been recognised for her work in Banking.

To learn more about Onyinye’s work at UUBO, please visit uubo.org

“Thorough reporting and proactive problem solver.” – IFLR1000,2019/2020

“They are one of the most dedicated lawyers I have worked with over the years. Glad they have become partners. Legal acumen and attention to details are their strengths.” – IFLR1000,2019/2020

Articles

Deals

Banking and Finance

Advised FMO and Proparco in connection with US$40 million and US$60 million on-lending facilities provided to Access Bank PLC and FCMB PLC respectively;

Advised IFC in connection with a US$75,000,000 ‘A’ loan facility granted to Obajana Cement Company PLC, in connection with the establishment of a 4.4 mtpa Greenfield cement plant at Obajana in Kogi State; 

Advised IFC, Standard Bank of South Africa and other lenders in connection with the provision of a US$130,000,000 acquisition finance and US$135,000,000 project finance in connection with the acquisition of Eleme Petrochemical Plant by the Indorama Group and the and the development and financing of the power plant and infrastructure; 

Led the team that advised Credit Suisse AG in connection with a US$30 million loan provided to MTNN Nigeria Communications Limited; and in respect of a US$84 million loan provided by Credit Suisse and China Exim to MTNN; 

Co-led the team that advised Standard Chartered Bank in connection with a US$65 million export credit finance provided to MTNN Nigeria Communications Limited which was guaranteed by Finnvera, the Finnish Export Credit Agency; 

Advised Citibank and KfW Ipex Bank GMBH in connection with the provision of a US$329,184,701 facility to MTN Nigeria Communications Limited for the purchase of equipment and general corporate purpose; and 

Advised Ecobank and other syndicate of Nigerian Banks in respect of a refinancing facility of N26.5 billion provided to IHS Nigeria Limited.

• Part of the team that advised Sahara Energy Group in connection with the Acquisition Finance Facility provided to its related company (New Electricity Distribution Company Limited) for the purpose of acquiring 60% of the equity share capital of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Plc;

• Advising Sahara Energy Group on the phased project construction, financing and development of a 530MW power infrastructure in an East African country;

• Advising Sahara Energy Group, a leading energy company in connection with the restructuring of loan facilities in an aggregated amount of US$723,000,000.00, aimed at mitigating the impact of the devaluation of the Naira on its business;

• Advised Geometric Power on the restructuring of the construction finance facility provided for the development of the Geometric IPP project in Aba, Abia State. His role involved negotiating the completion EPC contract in respect of the power plant being constructed by the project developer;

• Part of the team that provided legal advisory work, including legal due diligence, to a consortium of local and international banks that include the IFC, the European Investment Bank, and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund in connection with a proposed investment in, and project financing of, Geometric Power Aba Limited’s green field 188 MW Power Project;

• Advised FMO and Proparco in connection with US$40 million and US$60 million on-lending facilities provided to Access Bank PLC and FCMB PLC respectively.

• Advised IFC in connection with a US$75,000,000 ‘A’ loan facility granted to Obajana Cement Company PLC, in connection with the establishment of a 4.4 mtpa Greenfield cement plant at Obajana in Kogi State.

• Advised IFC, Standard Bank of South Africa and other lenders in connection with the provision of a US$130,000,000 acquisition finance and US$135,000,000 project finance in connection with the acquisition of Eleme Petrochemical Plant by the Indorama Group and the and the development and financing of the power plant and infrastructure.

• Led the team that advised Credit Suisse AG in connection with a US$30 million loan provided to MTNN Nigeria Communications Limited; and in respect of a US$84 million loan provided by Credit Suisse and China Exim to MTNN.

• Co-led the team that advised Standard Chartered Bank in connection with a US$65 million export credit finance provided to MTNN Nigeria Communications Limited which was guaranteed by Finnvera, the Finnish Export Credit Agency.

• Advised Citibank and KfW Ipex Bank GMBH in connection with the provision of a US$329,184,701 facility to MTN Nigeria Communications Limited for the purchase of equipment and general corporate purpose.

• Advised Ecobank and other syndicate of Nigerian Banks in respect of a refinancing facility of N26.5 billion provided to IHS Nigeria Limited.

• Led the team that advised a syndicate of lenders (including Citibank N.A. London, FMO, FirstRand Bank Limited Standard Chartered Bank, etc) in connection with a US$800 million loan facility to INT Towers Limited, a Nigerian telecommunications company.

• Led the team that advised AFC and RMB in connection with a US$95 million loan facility to MTN Nigeria Communications PLC.

Power, Infrastructure and Projects

UUBO’s Energy and Projects team have advised Geometric Power Limited in connection with (1) the US$50 million new debt funding provided by African Export and Import Bank (“Afrexim Bank”), (2) the debt restructuring of a facility of more than USD 500 million provided by three Nigerian lenders to Geometric Power Aba Limited (an affiliate of Geometric Power Limited), (3) the Aba Integrated Power Project (“Aba IPP”), and (4) the investment in the Aba Power Plant Project by equity investors who provided an aggregate amount of USD 19 million in new equity funding.

The Aba IPP is the most impactful and significant power sector project closing following the conclusion of the Azura transaction in 2015 and the power sector privatization in 2013. It is an integrated power island that has its own generation assets and its own distribution assets to serve a population of approximately 2 million people within 9 Local Government Areas in Abia State.

The transaction will lead to the creation of the 12th electricity distribution company in Nigeria and the establishment of a fully integrated utility by Geometric Group, having its own distribution network, an embedded generation facility and a dedicated 27-kilometre pipeline that will supply natural gas to the power plant. The BPE handed over the Aba IPP to Geometric today, Wednesday, 16th February 2022.

The UUBO team was led by Energy and Projects Partners Nicholas Okafor and Onyinye Okafor, with support from Amina Ibrahim (Managing Associate), Victor Samuel (Senior Associate), as well as Chisom Okolie, Maryam Salami, Uchechukwu Ajala, Oluwatobi Akintayo, Godson Iwuozo and Opeyemi Adeshina (Associates).

For more information about UUBO, its teams and our full-service offerings, including in Power, Projects and Infrastructure, please contact us at uubo@uubo.org.

Banking and Finance

Lagos State is the chief commercial and financial center of Nigeria, however, the state’s productivity is threatened by an inadequate transportation system to cater to its dense population of over 22 million people, heavy traffic and associated carbon pollution.

Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie is delighted to have advised International Finance Corporation (“IFC”) on its sustainable loan of the Naira equivalent of USD 50 million to the Lagos State Government for financing the development, construction, and rehabilitation of two Quality Bus Corridors totaling 8 kilometers to be implemented by Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority. In line with sustainable development goals, this impact investment aims to provide a sustainable transportation system in the megacity, ease the pressure on road traffic, and drastically reduce carbon emissions. The transaction also marks IFC’s first financing to a sub-national in Nigeria as part of its objective to achieve sustainable growth in developing countries.

The team was led by partners Nicholas Okafor, Yinka Edu, Onyinye Okafor, Joseph Eimunjeze and included Victor Samuel, Pamela Onah, Chisom Okolie and Maryam Salami.

Mergers, Acquisitions and Restructuring, Power, Infrastructure and Projects, Private Equity

Our transaction team was led by private equity partner, Folake Elias-Adebowale, with specialist input from #power and #finance team partners, Adeola Sunmola and Onyinye Okafor, and principal support from Tobechi Nwokocha, Godson Iwuozo and Aanu Odunaike.

For more information about UUBO’s #Private Equity, #M&A, #Energy, and other market-leading practice area offerings, please visit our website on www.uubo.org.

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