ARAFAT BALOGUN

Arafat Yinka Balogun attended Holy Child College, Lagos and is an alumnus of University of Miami, Coral Gables and University of Virginia, Charlottesville. She holds an A.B in Politics and Public Affairs from University of Miami and a J.D (Law); M.A (in Middle East & American Foreign Policy) and an LLM (Corporate Finance & Taxation, from the University of Virginia.

Arafat has vast experience in Banking Law, Compliance spanning over 25 years and spent about 12 years in senior management positions in United Bank for Africa Plc.

She has leveraged her extensive experience and currently provides legal and advisory services to several local and multinational companies in various fields including Maritime, Aviation, Oil & Gas, Banking, Power and Lottery law.

In the Maritime field, she has advised on and negotiated maritime & logistics contracts, vessel financing and maritime workouts, including liens and represented clients discretely on governmental & regulatory issues to protect their interests against alleged violations and reviewed risk management policies to address/mitigate internal and external issues. Her strategy includes leveraging on her industry contacts in the maritime industry and with foreign counsel in various maritime jurisdictions like Panama, to provide value added services to clients.

In the Aviation field, she has advised financial institutions and private companies and high net worth individuals who own and operate business aircrafts; reviewed and negotiated purchase and sale documents; and assisted in establishing voting and owner’s trusts to enable registration of aircrafts in the U.S with her contacts in relevant jurisdictions.

For Oil & Gas clients, she has negotiated and drafted oil and gas production and refining facilities, supply contracts and assisted to resolve issues where clients are financing infrastructure projects on a limited recourse basis.

Arafat has provided advisory services to offshore Fintech clients launching savings Apps in Nigeria and assisted in finding funding partners suited to their needs.