The second child of eminent Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, the late Prof O.K. Ogan, Chief (Mrs) Nnenna Ejekam chose to follow the path of law and legal studies. Educated in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, Ejekam studied Law at the University of Nigeria, Enugu campus. She later obtained her Masters in Law from the University of London. She got admitted to the Nigerian Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court in 1980. She then served at the National Assembly (Second Republic) where she was nominated to attend an intensive programme on legislative drafting at Washington State, the University of Washington, United States of America.
This culminated in a posting to the United States Senate as an intern in the office of a prominent United States Senator. She returned to Nigeria and served as a Legislative Draftsman and Secretary to the Senate Committee on Communications.
Read also: A Legal Icon of High Repute
With the demise of the Second Republic, She returned to her primary passion, the practice of Law under the tutelage of her revered mentor, Mr. A M. Ferguson CBE, Senior Partner of Irving and Bonnar. Irving and Bonnar, established in 1917, was then the oldest and most renowned Commercial Law Firm in Nigeria. She rose to become full partner of Irving and Bonnar in 1988. After the retirement and subsequent demise of Mr. A M. Ferguson, she established Nnenna Ejekam Associates (‘NEA’) in 1996.
NEA was established to replicate and preserve the same principles of best practice, professionalism and service to clients and community as embodied in the family and professional legacy Ejekam inherited.
Ejekam’s exposure to the highest standards of professional practice on the global arena and her personal disposition for highly efficient and structured legal practice, informed her decision to spearhead the establishment of several specialized law firms, consisting of partnerships between Nigerian and international law practices, to provide legal services of the highest standard to both the public and private sectors. In this capacity her firm was part of a team assembled to provide specialized legal support to the Federal Government’s privatization and commercialization agency, the Bureau of Public Enterprises, pursuant to a United Kingdom DFID-financed Legal Support Consultancy contract. Expert Legal advice was also provided for World Bank and IFC financed projects for the reform of the Power sector.
Ejekam also acted as a Special Counsel for a variety of investment projects for International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and the world’s largest source of direct project financing for private investments in developing countries. She has acted in similar capacities for African Development Bank (ADB) assisted projects and the Danish, German, and Dutch government development finance agencies and the United Kingdom’s Export Finance department.
Ejekam’s firm has also teamed up with the prominent Law Firm, Perchstone and Graeys, to execute critical projects in the liquefied natural gas sector and to serve key federal government agencies and ministries in finance securitization, debt restructuring, energy and infrastructure projects.
NEA remains active in the capital markets, energy, corporate and commercial law and corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and debt recovery, litigation and insolvency sectors. They are particularly active in rendering advisory services to investors in the agriculture and allied services sector with a particular focus on the revival of the oil palm industry.
NEA has played a pivotal role in some of the most successful joint ventures in the Nigerian market particularly in the fast moving consumer products sector. Chief Ejekam also led the initial team of lawyers acting for investors (The Tolaram Group) seeking to establish a methanol plant in the Free Trade Zone. This project was subsequently converted into the now fully operational Lekki Deep Sea Port.
In recognition of Ejekam’s efforts and contributions towards the welfare and progress of her local community and many diverse acts of philanthropy, she was been conferred with many awards and three chieftaincy titles. Chief Ejekam is a Notary Public and member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Mediators and Conciliators, Associate of Business Recovery Insolvency and Practitioners Association of Nigeria and an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries of Nigeria.
