Commission Secretary and Legal Adviser, Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission.

Olayemi Anyanechi is is a Nigerian lawyer, writer, negotiator and public speaker and currently the Commission Secretary and Legal Adviser of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission.

One of Nigeria’s foremost energy and finance lawyers, Olayemi has 27 years’ cognate experience advising indigenous and multinational companies as well as public bodies on diverse areas of law.

She graduated with a degree in law from the University of Ibadan as the best overall graduating student of her set and obtained a Masters’ degree in Corporate and Commercial law from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She was Chevening Scholar as well as a Pegasus Scholar of the Inner Temple, UK.

Olayemi has worked in various capacities including as Founder and Managing Partner of Sefton Fross, a leading law firm in Nigeria, Senior Partner and Head of the Banking & Finance Practice at Templars, General Counsel at Sahara Energy Group of companies, amongst others.

A woman of many parts, she has served as the Regional Representative (Africa) of the International Bar Association’s Power Law Committee, the Chairperson of the Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Re-Organizations Committee of the Section on Business Law of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Thematic Lead for Finance of The National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER) amongst several other roles.

She has been internationally recognized as a Global and National Leader in Energy and Natural Resources Law by Who’s Who Legal, one of the 9 super elite Leading Individuals in banking and finance law in Nigeria by Legal 500, and a Highly Regarded Corporate, Financial and Infrastructure Lawyer by IFLR1000. She was listed as one of 20 Outstanding Woman in Business Law, for Project Finance, by BusinessDay 2020, African Women in Law Woman to Watch in Law, 2020, Listed Top 100 Leading Women in the 2021 Nigerian Women Annual, Top 20 Nigerian Female Lawyers, This Day Newspapers, and was acknowledgement at the 2023 PEBEC Awards for contribution to the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

As Founder and Managing Partner of Sefton Fross, the Firm won several notable awards and recommendations, including Business Day’s “Top 100 Fastest Growing SMEs in Nigeria”; “Energy Team of the Year” and “Oil and Gas Team of the Year” by ESQ Legal Awards.

An erudite writer and speaker, Olayemi regularly contributes to international journals, books and magazines on oil and gas and banking and finance law, and recently co-authored two Chapters of the Globe Law and Business 2019 and 2023 “Encyclopedia of Upstream Oil and Gas”. 

Her personal mission statement is to live a balanced life, and use her gifts of intelligence, charisma, and serial optimism to build lasting legacies and cultivate the self-worth and net-worth of people around her.