Biography About NJ Ayuk

Mr. NJ Ayuk is the current CEO of Centurion Law Group, which comes as a pan-African legal and advisory conglomerate having its main headquarters in South Africa. Moreover, the firm has its global outreach in countries like Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Cameroon and Mauritius. If we look into his high-end experience, he has advised some of the major firms around in their investment strategies, the creation of joint ventures and corporation structures, privatization, licensing and related tax matters, OHADA law, oil and gas, power, local content development, litigation, contracts negotiation, governance and other matters related to the energy sector of Africa.

He is mainly active in the structuring, conciliation and execution process of some of the core industries like petroleum, mining, LNG, and other natural resource projects. Additionally, his big clientele bases include some of the renowned private operators in countries like Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, Uganda, and Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria, Senegal and other sub-Saharan countries. He brings along some big experience in facilitating and negotiating PSCs, EPSAs, JOAs, service agreements, concessions, oilfield service and drilling contracts, whilst also dealing with the licensing, pipeline and marine transportation issues. Well, his firm was also included in the sale and transportation of LNG in more than 15 African countries.

If we look down to his most recent work in the given domains, he has brought in his expertise whilst advising the Ministry of Petroleum and Energies of Senegal, the Ministry of Petroleum of South Sudan and the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea for all of their local policies and plan implementation strategies. He has also ensured his crucial participation in most of the strategic investments and projects which aim towards serving Africa’s energy sector in recent years. Well, this includes the drafting process of South Sudan’s first exploration and manufacture sharing agreement and the commencement of Equatorial Guinea’s offshore gas mega-hub in 2019, the first-ever one of its kind project in the whole African continent.

While Nj Ayuk Centurion Law Group has already worked with United Nations, he has used the same experience in taking care of various judicial modernization issues, rule of law issues, along with the training of African judges, prosecutors and lawyers on a pro bono basis. Nj Ayuk also ensures his active participation in domain-specific seminars and conferences while being an active speaker and moderator.

He was the one who aimed towards bringing the African legal industry to the 21st century and further launched Centurion Plus, which comes as one of Africa’s first lawyers and advisors on-demand service which facilitates all the companies and investors level their legal advisories teams according to the given projects requirements.

It has been since the year 2018, where he has been serving as executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber. This is where he has led the continent-wide efforts to develop the domestic capacity whilst advocating for a sturdier and centralized African energy industry.

Nj Ayuk Centurion Law Group got featured in the Chambers, Who's Who Legal, and Forbes Magazine and he further comes as an author of some of the industry best-sellers, Big Barrels: African Oil and Gas and the Quest for Prosperity, which looks through the account on Africa’s oil and gas sector while offering a clearer and more balanced picture of various benefits of efficient African economies and entrepreneurs.

If we talk about his education, he got his graduation completed from the famous University of Maryland College Park and further secured a JD from William Mitchell College of Law in the United States. He also holds an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology and comes over as an active member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), the Institute for Energy Law (IEL) and the Petroleum Joint Venture Association (PJVA).