This commences our series on partnership. Everything a businessman or entrepreneur needs to know about Partnership laws in Nigeria will be discussed in details but in series.





Partnership is a relationship existing between persons carrying on Business with a common view of making profit.

Unlike an incorporated company that has it's own distinct legal personality from its owners, partnership has no legal personality when dealing with a third party.
Members of a partnership are called partners, they are gents for each other for any thing done by one partner in the name of the business is binding on all partners.

Partners are fiduciary to each other, they are expected to act in good faith nd best interest of the partnership. They are not to use the course of partnership business to benefit their individual interest.

Partnership in Nigeria is governed by certain legal regimes or laws such as, common law, partnership Act of 1890, the Company And Allied Matters(CAMA) and the Partnership law of Lagos State and other States' laws on partnership.

Issues arising from a partnership, is most often resolved by law of contract and law of agency; because as said earlier partnership is an agreement by the partners and each partner is an agent of the others when it comes to the business interest of the partnership.

A partnership agreement may be oral, written. Or out of conduct; although it is always safer that partnership agreement be in writing.

According to Section 19(1) of the Companies And Allied Matters Act (1990) " No association consisting of more than 20 persons shall be formed for The purpose of carrying on any business for profit unless it is incorporated s a company"

The above provision simply means that no partnership must consist of more than 20 partners.
Where partners in partnership exceed 20, the implication might be severe. This is because any contract entered into by such partnership might not be enforceable in law because the constitution of such partnership offends the provision of the law.

Exception

The provision of above that partners of a partnership must not exceed 20 has 2 exceptions. These are Lawyers and Accountants.(section 19(2) CAMA)

These means that partnership entered into comprising of lawyers in a law firm and accountant in an accounting firm may exceed 20 partners.



Qualities of a partnership

In a partnership, each partner is the gent of the partnership nd represents the other partners. In a partnership, a partners personal assets are .................Read the rest: Visit legalify.ng/blog