Aniekan is currently the Managing Partner of UDO UDOMA & BELO-OSAGIE, a highly reputed multi-specialisation full-service law firm with offices in Nigeria’s key commercial centres and an affiliate in Ghana.
He heads the firm’s banking and finance team as well as its real estate, project finance, and infrastructure and private-public partnership teams. Mr. Ukpanah advises and represents Nigerian, international, and multilateral institutions and sponsors in the development and financing of numerous projects relating to telecommunications, petrochemicals, oil and gas, electric power projects, cement plants, construction, real estate development, rail, road and other infrastructure projects.
He has advised on a range of high-profile projects and transactions, including the Euromoney Deal of the Year in 2003, 2006, 2013 and 2014 respectively. He also advises corporate and state governments on capital markets and bond issuance.
Outside his core legal, banking and financing focus, his advice has been sought by a wide spectrum of government and corporate bodies. Mr. Ukpanah is a Member, Governing Council, Obong University, which is the first licensed private University in Akwa Ibom State. He is a Member, Technical Committee on the realisation of the Ibom Deep Sea Port and the Ibom Industrial City. He also served as a Member of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Technical Committee on Bank Consolidation, and was a Member of the Federal Government Study Group advising the Federal Government on the Review of the Nigerian Tax System.
In addition to his professional legal training, Mr. Ukpanah has attended the Owner Manager’s Programme of the Lagos Business School and the Executive Business Management Programme, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Mr. Ukpanah has been ranked as a leading lawyer across various global directories. He has been acknowledged as one of Nigeria’s leading project finance lawyers by the International Financial Law Review (IFLR1000), Chambers Global Legal Directory, Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal. With his experience in boardroom and corporate governance, he has brought extensive business network and that wealth of experience to bear on the business of Palmcoast Microfinance Bank Limited.