A review of the basic legal requirements for secured credit transactions

Abstract

Secured Credit Transactions (SCTs) are necessary and unavoidable transactions that business owners engage in to ensure their businesses thrive. However, because of the possibility that a person seeking to take a loan may be desperate and be taken advantage of in a time of dire need, or on the other hand, the possibility that the party may present fake properties as security for the loan, there are legal requirements that both the debtor and the creditor must meet. This paper addresses the possible parties to the SCT and the condition each category of the party must meet for the transaction to be valid. It further identifies the measures to be implemented to ensure the validity of Secured Credit Transactions. This paper finds that Nigerian Law protects both the creditor and the debtor to ensure that the SCT does not fail and none of the parties run at a loss. This paper concludes that there is a need to further protect the debtor and the creditor against failed SCT and to ensure that parties are aware of the Legal requirement for successful SCT in Nigeria. This paper recommends that the age of infants should be reviewed and made uniform across the country and that there should be a possibility to have a thorough investigation of the title of landed properties online.