Chike Obimma: Meet Anambra Rising Star Of The Year -

 Chike Obimma: Meet Anambra Rising Star of the Year

A Nigerian commercial lawyer and corporate transactions strategist, Chikezie Daniel Obim

ma, has emerged as one of the professionals shaping major investment, infrastructure and corporate governance deals across Nigeria and several foreign jurisdictions, with transaction involvements running into hundreds of millions of dollars across energy, finance, real estate, technology and cross-border acquisitions.

Obimma, founding partner of NICCOM LLP, belongs to a generation of Nigerian lawyers redefining the traditional role of legal practitioners by operating at the intersection of capital, regulation, infrastructure and enterprise development. Over the past decade, his career has evolved from legal advisory to institutional strategy, with responsibilities spanning transaction structuring, board-level governance, risk management and capital deployment.

Under his leadership, NICCOM LLP has grown from a two-man practice into a firm of more than fifteen professionals advising on complex corporate, infrastructure and multi-jurisdictional transactions. The growth of the firm, according to industry observers, reflects deliberate institutional planning, disciplined operational leadership and a sustained focus on commercial sophistication rather than routine legal practice. The firm has become a platform for structuring high-value deals, navigating regulatory frameworks and providing strategic guidance to domestic and international investors.

His transaction record includes advisory work for a United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates-based energy investment group with interests exceeding 500 million dollars in Nigeria’s upstream sector. He also served as transaction counsel in the negotiation of a 35 million dollar, 25-megawatt gas power plant project with diesel redundancy involving the Lagos State Government and an independent power producer.

In another major transaction, he acted as counsel in a 25 million dollar equity investment in a Nigerian power producing company, while also leading a team of investors in negotiating a 60 million dollar solar power project with the Government of Sierra Leone.

Obimma has also been involved in capital market and infrastructure financing transactions, including advisory work linked to the Lagos Green Bond which enabled access to about 35 billion naira in funding for waste management infrastructure. He further advised on a 10 billion naira real estate development within the Lekki corridor of Lagos, structuring the investment to achieve tax efficiency and regulatory compliance, and also acted as transaction counsel in a five-billion-naira concession arrangement designed with long-term risk allocation and compliance considerations. His advisory work extends to startups, private equity investors and acquisition negotiations both within Nigeria and across borders.

In the financial services and technology space, Obimma has advised fintech companies on acquisitions requiring regulatory approvals, including multi-jurisdictional transactions involving multinational entities in the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Ghana and Sierra Leone. In several engagements, he has also provided strategic advisory services to commercial banks, multinational investors and corporate boards on compliance, restructuring and governance-sensitive decisions, with emphasis on aligning commercial objectives with regulatory requirements.

Beyond transaction advisory, Obimma has steadily expanded his role into corporate governance, serving since 2021 in various Non-Executive Director positions across different enterprises where he contributes to risk oversight, institutional discipline and long-term growth strategy. His recent emergence as Chairman of the Board of WNL Chase Limited represents a further step in that progression, placing him in charge of strategic supervision of investments in car park and events infrastructure, a sector that intersects urban development, public utility services and commercial asset management.

His professional interests also extend into technology, data management and cloud infrastructure, with board-level participation in companies operating within those sectors. Analysts say this exposure to real-sector operations has strengthened his ability to advise investors and institutions on capital allocation, regulatory risks and execution challenges, giving him practical insight into how strategy translates into performance.

Academically, he holds a Master of Laws degree in International Business Law with distinction from Queen Mary University of London, an MBA from the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, and professional qualification from the Nigerian Law School. He has also contributed to corporate policy discourse, including authoring an article titled “The Why Behind Mergers and Acquisitions,” published in ThisDay Newspaper, where he examined the strategic reasoning behind corporate consolidation and investment expansion.

Unarguably, Obimma's career reflects a deliberate evolution from legal technician to institutional builder and governance leader, a trajectory that mirrors the changing demands of modern economies where law, capital and regulation increasingly operate together. With his growing involvement in high-value transactions and board-level responsibilities, many believe he represents a new model of commercially-minded legal professional whose influence is likely to expand as Nigeria’s investment landscape continues to grow and take enviable shape across the globe.