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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Chimezie Victor Ihekweazu is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and National President of the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN). He has served on the Capital Market Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a member of notable bodies: American Society of International Law, Construction and Infrastructure Chamber of Nigeria (CICN) and the International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Professionals (INSOL).
In 2023, Mr Ihekweazu was in Kigali, Rwanda to attend the INSOL African Roundtable. He has equally attended other INSOL events in Abuja, Accra and London. Recently he was in New York to represent BRIPAN at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Group V on Insolvency. His Organization recently held an International Conference in Lagos in September 2025 and an Insolvency Summit in Owerri Imo State on the 27th November 2025. In this interview, he talks about how BRIPAN can assist in rescuing failing businesses in Nigeria, among other issues.
We learnt BRIPAN has been in existence in Nigeria for the past 20 years. What informed the decision to hold the summit in Southeast for the first time outside your original base in Lagos?
I will say hosting the summit here in Southeast is one of BRIPAN’s biggest achievements in its regional spread in Nigeria. BRIPAN celebrated its 20th anniversary last December during which we honoured our past Presidents and General Secretaries among other celebrations. One of the promises I made when I took over the leadership of the Association in December 2023 was to work with our team to extend the Association’s operations and activities to all the six geo-political zones in Nigeria, so that businesses, practitioners and other stakeholders can take advantage of the huge opportunities and benefits offered under the Insolvency and Business Restructuring regime to support economic growth and development for our nation. With the approval of our Executive Committee and Council, I immediately created the six zones of BRIPAN, each headed by a zonal coordinator. The major mandate of the zonal coordinators is to ensure that they work with our members in the respective zones alongside other stakeholders to organize activities in the zones in line with our key objectives, which include holding capacity building programmes: workshops, conferences, trainings and get-togethers among others, while ensuring that awareness is created in the zones on BRIPAN, Insolvency and Business Restructuring options under our legal and institutional frameworks. We, therefore, mandated zonal coordinators to work towards achieving results in these areas while ensuring that the standards of practice among the members are such that it will match and compete with other international bodies in insolvency and business rescue. It is in this regards that I can say that the South East Summit was not only apt but timely. I am happy that this has been achieved in the Southeast.
Before I became President, most of our activities were held in Lagos but now our activities have been extended to other zones in Nigeria. The North Central was the first port of call, where we had members Nite Out and had speakers who addressed different areas of Insolvency and Business Rescue practice and opportunities. We have also had members Nite Out in Enugu which was very successful. In the South South and North East we have zonal leaders and members holding productive engagements with the Nigeria Bar Association and other professionals on awareness engagements on the insolvency regime. Interestingly, serious plans are ongoing to improve on these engagements for the benefit of businesses in Nigeria generally.
What is the idea behind holding the summit?
The summit was organised to make practitioners (lawyers, accountants and bankers, including regulators and other stakeholders) in the Southeast to understand and recognise the huge opportunities of insolvency and business rescue practice. It is not in doubt that the government and the Southeast people are bringing a lot of investors to the Southeast but these investments also come with challenges and some of them include business failures. We have experts who are trained in business rescue and restructuring. This is one of the objectives of BRIPAN: to help and equip failing businesses to survive because there are indices that lead to these failures. If you are well trained or well informed in that area you can support the company on professional engagements, to either reduce that level of failure or completely eliminate it. It is remarkable that under the provisions of the amended Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, two rescue options have been introduced – Administration and Company Voluntary Arrangements. In addition, other restructuring provisions have been added with effective modifications of some existing provisions. When businesses show these kinds of challenges and failures, what can be done? It is within our laws to teach people to know that the solutions are there and to bring them help as needed in deserving circumstances.
What is significance of this to the Southeast?
The Southeast is known for entrepreneurship, both in terms of individual businesses and corporate entities. In BRIPAN, we bring exposures and capacity on available options in corporate insolvency and personal insolvency affecting individuals. In Southeast we have different levels of businesses owned by individuals (sole proprietorships), partnerships and then these businesses help to support economic growth. So, bringing the Summit to the Southeast is an opportunity to tell the people that you can sustain what you have so that it will bring about comprehensive national development. All that is required is to understand the environment and the legal options as well as best means and strategies to apply them to achieve excellent results.
In BRIPAN, we do not have only lawyers, we have other intellectual property practitioners such as bankers and accountants with experience that can deliver and bring solutions for insolvency challenges.
And in the Southwest we’re also planning our activity in Ibadan, likewise in Northwest and Northeast. My happiness now is that BRIPAN has gone national and will continue to grow from strength to strength.
BRIPAN is 20 years old. What is the current number of members?
As at the time I took over we were above 1000 but today we’re over 2100 and by next month we are going to induct over 100 persons as associate members. Our membership training for November and December is ongoing. In terms of membership, you must go through these trainings and pass through the screening process with the approval of the Council to become an associate member. Under the membership structure, we also have fellows. To become a fellow you must have spent five years as an associate and then participate in the Fellowship training programme successfully before you are inducted as a Fellow of BRIPAN. This training is open to all our members who are qualified. This fellowship training equips the members with enhanced knowledge and techniques to bring solutions in different kinds of insolvency matters and business rescue challenges. In insolvency practice today our focus is on business rescue more than liquidation, because to rescue you allow companies to survive through a formal restructuring process and bring solutions to sustain them to function better with greater benefits to its interests. Today, an insolvency practitioner will first try to achieve a rescue which helps to sustain business, protect creditors, guarantee employment, provide returns to business owners as well as revenue to government, which in all help to ensure inter-dependence within the socio- economic structure in our society.
How many years can somebody stay to become a full member?
First of all, we have two types of membership: you start as an associate when you undergo the full membership training and after five years you do the fellowship programme which is a more advanced programme. Lawyers, accountants and bankers can do the training to become members.
Is it free to become a member?
No. Interested professionals can visit our website – www.bripan.org.ng
