Could you introduce yourself?

I am Rosemond Phil-Othihiva, a corporate and commercial law practitioner, working with tech firms at the intersection of law, technology, and venture capital. I am also a mentor at the Google for Startups Africa Accelerator.

What is the single most common legal mistake African founders make that causes investors to walk away during due diligence?

It's an interesting question with layered answers. Investors don’t just run legal due diligence; they look at leadership, product, and financial competence. They want to see whether the team can execute the vision effectively, whether the product is scalable and meets a real market need, and whether the founders understand how to effectively deploy capital. The most common red flags are inconsistencies in communication and records, discrepancies between what the product claims to solve and what the market actually needs, and the absence of a clear, coherent execution plan.

Startups often view legal compliance as a 'cost' rather than an 'asset.' How do you convince an early-stage founder to invest in a solid legal foundation when they are focused on survival and product-market fit?

Legal compliance is necessary for sustainability. Gone are the days when legal compliance was treated as a ‘nice-to-have,’ nowadays, it is a ‘must-have.’ For example, an unregistered company doesn't exist legally. You can't talk about business survival without legal compliance.

You’ve worked with organizations across Lagos, Accra, and Vienna. What is the most significant regulatory hurdle currently facing African tech startups looking to expand cross-border, and how are you helping them navigate it?

A major challenge arises when founders operate or incorporate in foreign jurisdictions. They become exposed to foreign exchange and inflation risks, which complicate payments, financial records, and investor relations. There is also the difficulty of understanding and implementing local legislation, particularly where laws are vague or inconsistently applied. Much of my work focuses on helping tech founders navigate these structural and compliance challenges as they scale across borders.

Your work with the Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands suggests high-level diplomatic and economic engagement. How can international partnerships be better leveraged to improve the legal ease of doing business in Nigeria?

I believe that rather than focusing solely on international frameworks, we should prioritize strengthening our own legal infrastructure. Too often, what passes for international partnership in Nigeria is simply copying foreign laws. Without adapting these frameworks to our local context, we risk importing challenges instead of creating solutions.

You are committed to inspiring professionals to pursue 'progressive career development.' In a field as demanding as law, what is your personal strategy for avoiding burnout while staying at the top?

Take breaks. Self-care is non-negotiable. You can’t do your best work if you’re not physically at your best. Have a dedicated workspace, so you’re not, for example, sleeping with your laptop on your bed. Work with systems and schedules that prioritize personal health.

With the 2026 tax reforms in Nigeria now active, what is the most critical 'compliance health check' you perform for startups to ensure they don't lose their investor appeal during the final stages of a seed round?

A key objective of the 2026 tax reforms is greater tax visibility. Startups should ensure all their documents are complete and accurate. Work closely with accountants and tax experts, maintain audited financial records, and keep a careful track of cash flow.

You speak passionately about personal branding in your book. How does a lawyer build a 'brand' that is both authoritative/conservative and innovative/tech-friendly without compromising professional ethics?

While lawyers may not advertise their practice due to certain rules in professional ethics, this doesn’t mean that lawyers are unable to talk about what they do and the work they’ve done. It’s important to understand that an important tool of a lawyer’s trade is knowledge. When it comes to branding—in fact, I talk about this in the fifth chapter of my book, “Made For More”, where I talk about how you can metamorphose yourself as a brand—I would say the number one thing is to understand what your story is. What do you want to share with the world, and how do you want the world to perceive you? Branding is beyond wearing beautiful clothes, posting nice pictures on LinkedIn once in a while, and sharing feel-good content. A brand is the experience that people have of you when you are in and out of the room.

To build a good brand, you should focus on these. The first is your image. The next is your message. You must speak about something. For example, you can be a contributor to an economic issue or share your perspective on different laws. Personally, I share my work by posting personal growth hacks and self-awareness insights that help people understand they’re not alone in their journeys. I don’t explicitly say what I do online. Instead, I curate masterclasses, teach for free, speak at conferences, moderate panels, support founders, and join communities. There are many ways to build a brand, but what matters most is being authentic to who you are. Do all of these, and do them consistently. Building a brand takes time, effort, consistency, and authenticity.

As we look at the tech ecosystem today, what is the 'next big' legal challenge? Is it AI regulation, data sovereignty, or the harmonization of trade laws under the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area)?

You’ve already answered the question. All you’ve mentioned as challenges are what came to my mind as well. Nigeria seems to be playing catch-up, as far as our regulations and laws are concerned. For instance, the European Union released the AI Act, and Nigeria has adopted it in a way that is detrimental to it. A lot of issues will continue to come up if we do not engage our intellectual capacity to sit down and look at the specific issues we face in the new areas of law. AI governance is definitely something to look out for. We’ve always had lots of initiatives promoting AI governance, but it’s critical now because it’s no longer easy to differentiate between human intervention and purely artificial intelligence-driven initiatives. The laws aren’t the only problem.

The implementation of those laws is another problem of its own. We need fewer talkers and policymakers and more enforcement in the African continent as a whole. The law is useless without the actual ability for it to cause change, and if change is not happening, society dies little by little. Another area I believe is critical is in the venture capital space. A lot of changes are happening now with how investors perceive founders, and now, founders have to be on their A game if they want to take their businesses to international levels. The serious ones will be sifted from the unserious ones, so the sooner founders begin to put their houses in order, the better. Compliance initiatives will be launched, and founders will take advantage of them because they wouldn’t like to be left behind.

Most law students are taught to be generalists. You’ve carved out a specific niche for yourself in the Tech start-up ecosystem. How should a student identify a 'niche of the future' today, and when is the right time to start specializing?

In my book, Made For More, I talk about how important it is to specialize in a particular field of law. However, as a law student, the first thing you should do is to get as much knowledge as you can. Leave specialization until you can determine what you enjoy doing and what you’re naturally good at. Experience different fields of law, as what you’re taught in class may not be fully obtainable in practice. Give yourself enough time to experience everything that there is to. With the knowledge that you garner over this period, you can decide on an area of specialization. In your early years, aim to work in a firm that exposes you to multiple practice areas. I began with civil and criminal litigation, and along the line, I realized that litigation was not where I wanted to be. Opportunities came, and I found myself in the technology space. Picking an area of specialization isn’t a decision I would advise you make the moment you’re done with school. Give yourself some time, get your hands dirty, and then make your choice.

With almost a decade of experience behind you, where do you see the Nigerian tech-legal landscape in 2030, and what role do you intend to play in shaping it?

In 2030, I see lawyers moving from just interpreters of law to formulators and even executors of the law. The legal-tech space will go beyond legal compliance and on to advocacy. There will be a lot of legal technology products and solutions. We’re also going to have a lot of policy implementation initiatives that will be carried out by lawyers themselves. Lawyers will come into many new spaces, and it won’t be business as usual. A lot of young lawyers have to be proactive problem solvers, or they’ll get left out. They’ll also be thinking from the lens of being project managers, being policy formulators, sitting on boards and pushing narratives we want the continent to be represented by on both local and international levels. I see myself sitting squarely into these roles. I already do this in part, but I think my role is going to be more deeply entrenched in bridging the gap between regulation and impact. I don’t see myself doing something extremely different from what I’m doing right now, instead on a larger platform, in a bigger space and capacity.