Adeniyi Duale

Adeniyi Duale is a Founding Partner of Duale, Ovia & Alex-Adedipe, known as DOA, a specialist commercial law firm in Lagos, Nigeria, and was named Venture Capital Law Expert of the Year in Nigeria at the 2024 Corporate INTL Global Awards. The recognition reflects his prominence in Africa's investment space and his role advising startups, investors and multinationals on the transactions that drive the region's growth economy.

Duale, Ovia & Alex-Adedipe describes itself as a specialised law firm with leading experts in its core areas of practice, focusing on commercial and dispute resolution work across the Nigerian economy. The firm serves corporations, investors, financial institutions, government agencies and foreign law firms, and is known for its technology-driven orientation. Its corporate and commercial department is praised by clients for a strong command of venture capital and corporate commercial structures, a reputation that sits at the centre of the firm's appeal to founders and funds operating in Nigeria's fast-developing startup ecosystem.

As a founding partner, Adeniyi Duale heads the firm's mergers, acquisitions and private equity practice as well as its energy and natural resources group. With close to two decades of experience, he has become a recognised figure in Africa's investment landscape, advising on high-stakes transactions across banking and finance, private equity and the energy sector. His work brings him into regular contact with the investors, startups and multinational companies shaping cross-border capital flows into and across the continent.

His practice spans venture capital, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, foreign direct investment and renewable energy financing. This combination is particularly well suited to the venture capital field, where founders and funds require counsel who can structure early-stage investments, negotiate financing rounds and navigate the corporate and regulatory frameworks that govern high-growth companies. Working alongside colleagues in a firm built for technology and commercial work, he helps clients move from concept and funding through to scale and, where relevant, exit.

Recognition as Venture Capital Law Expert of the Year in Nigeria affirms Adeniyi Duale's standing as a trusted adviser to the startup and investment community. For entrepreneurs raising capital and for the investors backing them, he offers transactional experience, sector insight and a practical grasp of the structures that underpin venture and private equity dealmaking in Nigeria. His award underscores both his individual expertise and DOA's reputation as a leading firm for venture capital and corporate commercial work.