Adewunmi Alode is the General Counsel & Company Secretary at Lafarge Africa Plc, a member of the Holcim Group in Switzerland, where she leads the Legal & Compliance team.
She is a seasoned legal practitioner, a Chartered Company Secretary with over 16 years’ post-call experience. She started her career with a brief stint in core legal practice, where she gained experience in legal advocacy at reputable law firms prior to joining Lafarge Africa Plc (then Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc) in 2008.
Read Also: Lafarge Africa is a Nigerian-run company with brilliant prospects – HR Director
Adewunmi is a strong advocate for value addition in whatever capacity she finds herself. She therefore sees Law as a tool in the hands of a lawyer to enhance strategic decision-making and value addition. She is driven by the mindset that Lawyers in Business or corporate organisations are business partners, not risk adverse set of people who hinder organisations from achieving their set goals.
It was in the light of this, she joined Lafarge in 2008 during its strategic, operational, and industrial transformation to expand its Ewekoro Plant by 2.5million metric tonnes, popularly known as Lakatabu Expansion Project (now Ewekoro Line II Plant).
The Lakatabu Expansion Project afforded her the opportunity to play a pivotal role in in project management, negotiations of complex international commercial contracts, N75bn on-shore and offshore syndicated loans, 90MW power plant projects, Coal Power Plant projects, the Central Bank of Nigeria Power Intervention Fund Agreements and so on.
Having successfully concluded the Expansion Project, she assumed the role of the Legal Manager in 2011 with clear objectives to support the Company in implementing its strategic and financial goals, which she successfully completed over a period of five to seven years. Over the years, she had completed complex commercial transactions such as Schemes of Mergers, Acquisitions, N50billion Bond Issuance Programmes, Commercial papers, Rights Issues, Divestments, Mandatory Tender Offers, Voluntary Tender Offers, Delisting a subsidiary company on the Nigerian Exchange Group (formerly The Nigerian Stock Exchange), Gas Supply Contracts, Share Sale Agreements, Engineering & Procurement Contracts, Captive Power Plants projects, Joint Ventures amongst others.
In 2019, she played another significant role in the Divestment of the 100% equity interest held by the Company in Lafarge South Africa Holdings (Pty) Limited worth USD316m and its Debt Restructuring.
Adewunmi holds professional certifications from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, United Kingdom and Nigeria and she has over 13 years’ work experience in Company Secretariat matters, regulatory compliance for both private and publicly quoted companies. She is a Masters’ degree holder from the Business School Netherlands (BSN). A graduate of Law from the Lagos State University from 1998 to 2003 where she obtained her Bachelors of Law degree (LL.B) and called to the Bar at the Nigerian Law School, Abuja in October 2004, there she obtained her Barrister at Law degree (BL).
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
