1.
Introduction
Start out by introducing yourself, speak about your university degree and how you’ve always
been intrigued about ways to maximizing Nigeria’s agricultural and industrial impact, and how
your final year thesis was aligned to this sort of productive research.
Then talk briefly about how you proceeded to Law school and gained your BL.
Next, talk about your NYSC year which gave you firsthand litigation experience, working closely
with the DPP and speak about one remarkable court experiences.
Talk about your other qualifications, how you’ve been determined to broaden your perspectives
and further develop yourself and how it has led you to gain these other qualifications, and there
are still others in view.
Then, end the introduction with a conclusion like this is why you’re seeking to work closely with
an organisation like Welcome2Africa because their focal areas align strongly with your ambition
and you think it’s a place you’ll love to be in
2. Questions and Answers Segment
a. They’ll probably ask if you have experience working with investment, trade or agriculture
and what you think when you hear the combination of trade and investment, and why you
want to work with them
Reply by saying how you’re particularly drawn to W2A’s model of combining investment,
trade and development. And it’s the sort of thing you’ve always looked out for. However, you
know you had to deepen your litigation skills and knowledge of both local and international
legal regulation, because compliance is a major factor to consider before venturing into trade,
investment or developing in the agricultural sector. Say that you’ve interned at very reputable
law firms and have insights into how trade and investment works, also as the organisation’s
legal officer, you’ll double as the risk manager to protect the organisation from legal risks and
liabilities. Let them know that W2A’s focus on agribusiness, energy and solid minerals aligns
with your belief that Africa’s growth lies in structured, legally compliant and investment-
ready enterprises, and you want to contribute to building the frameworks that make such
expansion secure and effective.
b. They’ll also probably ask you what do you understand by a holding company, and what legal
considerations are critical when setting one up? Since the job description says you’ll manage
expansion and all that, they’ll want to test your corporate structuring and compliance
knowledge.
You can reply by saying a holding company is a parent entity created to own controlling
interests in other subsidiaries while providing strategic oversight and risk isolation. Just
explain what a holding company and subsidiaries mean to them. You have Sonia Ltd as the
parent company and you sell chin-chins, and then hope to sell plastic containers to package
the chin-chin, and then you open a subsidiary plastic company.
Briefly discuss some of the key legal considerations before opening a subsidiary like
establishing clear ownership structures, ensuring regulatory compliance across jurisdictions,
drafting inter-company agreements, and all of these are what you’ll be helping
Welcome2Africa to achieve.
c. They’ll probably ask how you work in a team to test your team management and
interpersonal leadership
You can reply by saying you believe in collaboration. You have set some clear
expectations for yourself in this role and you like to help members of your team to fulfill
the main objectives of the organisation like profit-making and sustainability.
Tell them you also like to receive feedback, because it would help you achieve most of
your expectations and improve better
d. They’ll probably ask how would you approach drafting and managing contracts across
multiple subsidiaries?
Tell them you’ll develop an office checklist. Because a checklist is the backbone of
every organisation and since you understand the importance of compliance, that’s one of
your core strengths. You’ll also leave dedicated reports to senior managements, and
develop a contract management framework that categorises every agreement by risk
level. Boast humbly about your IT skills here and how you’re very conversant with
technology and IT tools.
e. If they ask you what are your weaknesses? Or what don’t you like about your work
skills?
You can reply by saying that you don’t neccesarily consider it weakness, but you think
it’s an area you have to improve on. Tell them you’re too meticulous to details, you pay
too much attention to details and you don’t like to delegate work, because you want to
make sure you do everything perfectly, but then you’re making improvements because
you realise that you have to have as much faith in other people as you have in yourself.
3. Conclusion
If they ask you whether you have any questions for them? Sound excited and firstly, commend
them for a very interesting interview, tell them the interview has shown you the sort of thing to
expect from the organisation and then tell them you just have two questions:
a. Ask them what would success look like for you in the first 6 months of working in
this role? What are their expectations for a legal officer in this role? It shows them
that your mind is there, and you’re all about delivering. This would throw them into
a position to start explaining plenty, and then nod your head as they speak and seem
interested.
b. Then also, ask them what compliance tools/measures have they been using so far? If
they’re in a position to share? Because you know of mycompanyworks, a software
platform for regulatory compliance, that cuts across both US, UK and Nigerian
companies, you also know about VComply. Then allow them to answer, they might
not know what you’re talking about because they’re not lawyers, so they’ll say don’t
worry, if you’re selected, they’ll tell you more about their compliance tools, you can
nod and say how that is fine, and you’re open to finding out.
Please go with your writing tools. A pen and jotter at least. To jot down when
they’re talking about their expectations in the first six months of the job or anything
else you think is worth jotting down. It portrays you as very interested in the job.
Goodluck!