Month: May 2021

courier

The Regulation Of Courier And Logistic Companies In Nigeria

Posted on by admin in Capital, Compliance, Small Businesses, wealth

Courier and Logistic services is big business. According to the US International Trade Administration, the value of Nigeria’s logistics sector as at 2018 was estimated to be N250 bn ($696 million US Dollars. This value has increased to N300bn.

Since the dawn of time, people have been moving objects from one place to another. Whether it was a stack of rocks for building a house, food or (more recently)items bought online. As time progressed, people devised more methods for transporting goods. These ranged from messengers running around delivering messages to homing pigeons or horses and carts. 

The Nigerian Courier and logistics sector has been impacted by a huge infrastructure deficit, anti-business government policies, poor road networks, unstable electricity, and multiple taxation. This has prevented the sector from achieving its full potential, with local stakeholders unable to meet financial obligations, transferring costs and charges to end-users thus making them uncompetitive, and making room for foreign owned operators with the financial capabilities to absorb higher levels of business risk to enter into the market, entrenched corruption, and others being additional factors.

Do you want to invest in the Courier or Logistics Sector? We can guide you on the best way to structure your investment.

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duress

Economic Duress

Posted on by admin in entrepreneurship, Small Businesses, transaction advisory, wealth
duress

Duress can be described as an illegal threat or intimidation that induces another person to perform actions that he would otherwise not perform.

Initially, the doctrine of duress was limited to actual or imminent violence. Over the years, this theory has grown to include different types of hardship. These include economic hardship, the threat to seize or detain goods, the threat to land, and the threat to trade or industry.

Generally, a contract can be voided by one of the parties on grounds of Duress, undue, influence and unconscionable dealing. This is because his/her consent was obtained by conduct which the law considers unacceptable. As a result, the law presumes that there is no valid consensus, which would form a valid contract.

Economic Duress

Economic duress in contracts occurs where a party to a contract threatens to cancel a contract unless the other party agrees to their demands. This usually happens when the other party is stuck, and has no other practical options but to agree to the new terms of the contract. If you can prove you were forced into a contract through economic pressure, you can claim that you did not enter the contract on your free will.

 It is an established law that economic pressure can in law amount to duress. This duress, if proved, does not only render the transaction voidable. It may also be actionable as a tort, if it causes damage or loss. In other words, you are under duress when you have no choice, forcing you to agree to another party’s terms.

In Pao On v. Lau Yiu Long, the courts observed that the basis of duress does not merely depend upon the absence of consent. It requires the combination of pressure and absence of practical choice. In this context, two questions become all-important. The first is whether the pressure or threat is legitimate; and secondly, its effect on the victim.

To establish economic duress, you need to prove two universally accepted elements. These are, the exertion of illegitimate pressure by one party on the other; and significant causation i.e. a significant cause compelling or pressurizing the other party to act as he did.

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