Oluwasegun Victor Alade is a lawyer and the founder of Complier, a compliance management tool built to help small and medium-sized businesses stay on top of their regulatory obligations.

He has spent several years as a legal compliance consultant, advising businesses across a range of sectors in both Nigeria and the UK. He holds a Master's degree in law along with certifications in data analytics, data protection, and AI governance — the two areas, data protection and AI governance, where his career is now firmly focused.

He is passionate about emerging technologies and the ways they intersect with the law. That interest has shaped not just his work but his role in the wider ecosystem: he has led tech law communities and is a partner in a tech compliance firm.

A speaker, an innovator, and a keen traveller, he builds Complier out of a simple conviction — that compliance shouldn't be a burden that holds small businesses back, but something they can manage with confidence.

The Origin Story

What's the story behind the product. What problem were you personally running into, or watching someone else run into, that made you think there had to be a better way?

After graduation and being called to the bar, one of the first jobs I did was work in compliance for a startup advisory firm. Part of my job was registering and incorporating businesses with the CAC, and one of the major problems we had as an in-house team was that there was no software to bring our clients together, track their progress, and identify whatever requirements they might need — or even know when they were due to file annual returns or renew their licences. Everything depended on the clients. We were reactive; we only responded when a client came chasing. If the client was not aware, there was literally no way we would know. The only clients we paid real attention to were the ones who paid us on retainer, and for those we had to manually set up a compliance management process and manually keep track of their dates. I thought at that moment that there ought to be a better way to do this — and several years after that episode, I still could not find a product in the market that actively solves that problem, especially in the small and medium enterprises environment.

The other thing that pushed me was the calls I kept receiving from friends and family members trying out a business idea: “Segun, what do you think I need to know?” The majority of them only knew about registering the business. Once we started talking, I would explain that because of the way their business was structured, they needed this licence, that permit — and that conversation exposed them to things they had no idea about. I thought: what if there were a solution where you did not have to call me? If they went to other professionals, they would probably be charged just to get that information. What if there were a product where all you need to do is tell it about your business, and it gives you the specific requirements you are looking for?

Before you built Complier, how were Nigerian business owners actually handling compliance? What did the workaround look like?

It was pretty much traditional, in the sense that every business owner needed to know somebody who was either a lawyer or an accountant — you just had to have a professional within your circle. Some businesses were heavily funded enough to recruit a lawyer at the earliest stage, before even building anything or knowing whether the business was viable. For everyone else, the workaround was asking around: asking friends and family, “do you know any lawyer I can use for my business?” They get a recommendation, pick up the conversation with the lawyer, and depending on how that professional works, they come into the office or have a quick call — and they pay even for the advice. Then they execute those items from incorporation onwards, and if they need someone to maintain their compliance and keep track of what they need to do, they pay a retainer to hold them. That is legitimate work — it is my work as a lawyer — but if you cannot afford it, they let go of you.

That creates a massive gap, even for the professionals. Imagine you have attended to 200 clients — you incorporated their businesses, and beyond that service there are layers of value you could still provide for them. But because you have no system to keep track of those businesses, you lose the ability to go back to them, and that relationship goes quiet until the business faces a problem. I have had people I registered businesses for as far back as 2019 reach out to me in 2025 and 2026 asking for a copy of their certificate, or for a status report because they wanted to enter a partnership. They go back to the CAC to request a certified true copy, and the CAC tells them it cannot be provided because they have not been filing their annual returns — and now there is a penalty to pay. I have experienced so many situations like that. The compliance environment in Nigeria is totally reactive, the culture is poor, and that is because there is not much information out there to help business owners do the right thing at the early stage. That is why we built Complier.

Did you come into this with a background in law, finance, or tech? And how did that shape the way you approached building the product?

Absolutely — I started off as a lawyer, and I am still a lawyer. I studied law, so I fully appreciate the need for business owners to comply with rules and regulations. But over the years, I have found a way to match both tech and law. I focus mostly on the governance side of things, but I have picked up technical knowledge along the way — experience in data, and an understanding of the technicalities around front end and back end from the many projects I have worked on. I currently work as a data privacy consultant and AI governance analyst as well, so I have strong relationships with technical people. That combination really helped: I could take the idea, bring it to the team, and together we were able to bring something valuable out of it. It is the application of my legal knowledge, plus that exposure to technical knowledge, that has brought us to this point.

What was the very first version of Complier? Walk me through what you had at the start and how far it is from what exists today.

The first version was quite restrictive. When a business owner came in to sign up, they could only pick one sector. After the first trial we realised that was not helping, because a business has the potential to function in multiple sectors — I can be in agriculture and at the same time be using technology, or doing finance with tech obligations I need to be aware of. We had failed to give the user the best experience. Now you can select multiple sectors on the platform, which was a major improvement — and beyond that, if you think your sector is not listed, you can bring that sector on board yourself and it will be acknowledged by the platform.

There has also been a massive change to how you interact with the platform. The chat functionality in the first trial was not very effective — you could still engage, but it was not smooth, smart, and friendly. We wanted to bring compliance to business owners through something they are used to, something that is part of their everyday habits. Everyone uses their phone; everyone chats on platforms like WhatsApp. So we built the experience around that, simplifying compliance so that if you want to get something done, you can do it by having a quick chat with the admin.

The commercial model changed too. At the early stage we made the product quite closed — you had to pay in order to see your requirements. But when we saw the massive gap and the massive need among small business owners, we restructured. The product is now entirely free at the basic level: you see your requirements upon onboarding without subscribing. You only subscribe for the layers on top — for instance, if you are a professional, or you have more than one business and want to manage multiple businesses in the same account. The auto-reminder feature sits in the premium tier, as does the cloud storage feature, where all your compliance documents are saved automatically in one place — no more hunting through folders on your laptop.

The Product

When a business owner signs up on Complier, what actually happens? Walk me through the experience the way you would explain it to someone using it for the first time.

You go to the platform at www.usecomplier.com and sign up the same way you would on any platform — with your email and password, or using the Google sign-in integrated into the platform. Once you sign up, you get a verification code, because we take security very seriously. Then there is a one-page onboarding where you give details about your business: the name, whether it is registered with the CAC — every business in Nigeria needs to be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission — and if it is registered, you provide your RC number. You tell us the sector of the business. It is just a few clicks.

Once that is complete, the system verifies the details against the Corporate Affairs Commission database. At the moment there are several businesses whose CAC profile is inactive, unknown to them — they only find out when they are having issues, wanting to expand or enter a contract and needing documentation. So we run a quick check against the CAC database and you get an automatic response as to whether your business is active or inactive.

Either way, you land on your dashboard, which gives you all the requirements assigned to your sector — the things the system believes are the most important for a starter. It is not everything; we are not taking over the work of a lawyer. As you grow, at some point you will need an expert to help with the bigger things. But the essential items a small or medium business needs to scale — you see all of that. You see the status of each item, and you have the ability to tick off the things you have already done, because you know your business: has our tax identification number registration been done? If yes, mark it completed. Everything else sits there as not completed until you take action.

From there, the system calculates your compliance level based on how many requirements you have completed. Some requirements are one-off; some are recurring — every year, every six months, every two years — and you see both clearly on your dashboard. You can also explore the knowledge base for regulatory updates and things affecting your sector. And if you pick a compliance item you have not completed, you see the details and the consequences of not filing it. If you want to go ahead, you click “start filing” — and at that point you engage with a human, not an AI: a vetted, recruited human expert working for the platform, who takes the few details they need from you, goes out, completes it, and comes back to update your platform. You track everything. It is easy to use and very user-friendly.

You have a compliance score on the platform. How is that score calculated, and why did you decide a score was the right way to show users where they stand?

The team believes a score is a very good way to speak to the brain, because the brain is used to a scoring method. Everyone, one way or another, has done exams — you know what it feels like to have a high grade or a lower grade. This is a model that is not new to the mind. So the first instant you see the score, it triggers something by default: am I compliant or non-compliant? Everything we have designed is about bringing the idea of compliance to the business owner in a way they find relatable — no longer something they dread or are scared of, but something they can relate with. That is what the score is about.

It is calculated from the requirements themselves. The data we gather about your sector generates what you need to do; you respond by marking the things you have done and leaving the things you have not done as incomplete. The system then automatically calculates the number of items completed against those outstanding. There is also a calendar tracker — if anything is coming up, you see that it is due at a particular time.

One of your features lets users hand off their actual filings to your in-house legal team. How does that work in practice? Who are the people on the other side handling those filings?

Compliance still needs expert engagement — what we have done is put everything in one place for you. We are not taking over the work of a lawyer, but the system has to complete the flow. We started the journey by letting you see what you need; we continued by putting everything together on your dashboard, accessible from your phone or computer. So what happens if you have not done something and need it done? We do not want to take you back to the traditional method, where you start hunting for a professional and comparing prices to make a decision.

That is why we have onboarded and recruited professionals who work with us at the back end and attend to your requests. These are highly vetted, accredited professionals. We have organisations partnering with us — a data protection compliance organisation has partnered with us to help our users with audit filings with the NDPC — and we have individual legal practitioners and accountants we have recruited. We have designed it so we can complete the journey for the user: you never have to leave the platform to find someone to help you. And one of the beautiful things is that the pricing is set in a way that makes using the platform very encouraging — compared to what you would get outside, the prices from our professionals are genuinely affordable.

What regulatory bodies does Complier currently cover? CAC, FIRS, NSITF, pension remittances — how wide is the coverage right now and what is still coming?

We cover quite a number of regulatory bodies at the minute: from the Corporate Affairs Commission to the Central Bank of Nigeria — all the licences for financial providers, fintech providers, and anyone in financial transactions — the Federal Inland Revenue Service, NAFDAC, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, the Nigerian Communications Commission, even the Nigerian Copyright Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. And the list goes on.

What we have designed is a system that can query all of these regulators and their requirements, and filter that down to the user’s specification. Everyone deals with the Corporate Affairs Commission, because that is the commission that manages business registration. Every business also has an obligation to pay tax, so you will be dealing with either your State Inland Revenue Service or the Federal Inland Revenue Service. If you are into financial provision or issuing investments, you will be dealing with SEC and the CBN. The system recommends to you all the regulators aligned to your sector. There are some you might decide you do not need yet, because your business has not reached that level — but they remain on your dashboard as things you are aware of, so that when you get to that stage, you can pick them up.

And we do not rely on technology alone. We have researchers constantly scoping regulatory developments and watching what laws are coming into play — like the new tax law, where we have expanded on its provisions and tailored them down to what is relevant to each user’s business. We keep doing that horizon scanning, using both technology and human-in-the-loop intelligence, to stay aware of new laws and new principles as they come. That is what our users are getting.

You also serve legal practitioners managing multiple clients. How is the experience different for a law firm compared to an individual SME owner on the platform?

The major difference is the ability to add multiple businesses. You can sign up as a compliance professional — whether a law firm or a business consultancy — with multiple clients whose compliance you have to manage. As I said, this was my problem years ago as a practising lawyer: there was no tool to track all the dates, no automatic reminder notifications. You might have 30 or 50 clients and be saving all their details on your phone or in your head.

On Complier, you can add all of those businesses to your account. Each goes through the same process — the CAC status is checked, they each get their compliance requirements — and you receive automated emails and in-web notifications when things are due. It brings your work together on one platform. A single owner is just managing and tracking one business; as a professional, you also do not necessarily need the in-app experts to complete a task, because you are a professional yourself. You have the functionality to toggle any requirement you have already completed, and you can upload documents and keep them per client. It becomes a full compliance management tool that you are using as a professional.

The Market and the Problem

Nigeria has multiple regulatory agencies, each with its own portal and deadline schedule. How fragmented is it really, and how did that shape how you built Complier?

It is really fragmented, because there is no uniform way of doing things. Nigeria has all the regulators I have mentioned — and on the platform, there are far more than that — and each has its own requirements, deadlines, and schedules. With the NDPC, for instance, if you register as a data controller or data processor of major importance, that registration is due for renewal every two years. With the CAC, you have to file your annual returns every year before March — and if you are a limited liability company, the first filing falls due precisely eighteen months after you register the company. Compliance is time-sensitive: if you are not meeting these timelines, you run the risk of paying penalties. Organisations that process personal data need to file their audit before a certain period — again in March; the regulator can extend the date, but if you still do not file, the NDPC penalty is 50 per cent on top of what you would have paid in the first place. That is a lot of money for a business.

What we have done is let technology identify all of those dates, no matter how complex they are — and all you need to do is take action when you receive a notification. Reminders are set periodically: you get a reminder a couple of weeks to the deadline, a week to the deadline, and a few days to the deadline. That keeps you alert. You get in-web notifications; if you want to be notified via WhatsApp or text message, you get that; and you can also get email notifications. You will not miss any deadline, because you are fully aware.

A lot of small business owners do not even know what they are supposed to file or when. Is the bigger problem ignorance of the obligations, or the complexity of actually fulfilling them once you know?

To be honest, it is both. But knowing what to do is the major thing that can change the culture of compliance. Ignorance has robbed people of their money — people pay a lot for not knowing what to do. And ignorance is not an excuse. Technology is evolving; I do not think we should remain where we used to be. There are things worth paying money for, but ignorance should not be one of them. That is why we built this: so you can be aware. Even if you are not taking action immediately, at least you know what to do, and you can even do your own research and confirm it. It works for professionals too — you may not know everything, and if you use the platform as a professional, you can pull together the details you might have missed and know what is required of you.

The penalties for non-compliance are real. CAC late filing fees, FIRS fines, potential license revocations. Have users ever come to you after already getting hit with a penalty? What does that conversation look like?

Yes. I mentioned a particular client who needed to seal a deal and was asked to provide their tax clearance certificate. Some of these requirements are connected — you cannot get a tax clearance certificate if your CAC documentation is not up to date. So this person went back to the CAC and realised that for a number of years there were things they ought to have done — annual returns that had never been filed — and a penalty was issued. It was a huge amount of money for that business owner at the time, and it was stressful. I felt bad. The conversation was hard, because I wished I had had a way to help them keep track of what they needed to do. What they kept saying was: “We didn’t know. I didn’t know I was supposed to do this. I didn’t know I was supposed to do that.” That ignorance led them there — and the system has not been designed by the regulators in a way that keeps everyone abreast of what they need to do. That is exactly the problem we built this solution to solve.

There is a school of thought that compliance in Nigeria is inconsistently enforced, so many SMEs just take the risk and ignore it. What do you say to that founder?

It is true that many Nigerian founders think compliance is not enforced, so there is no point being compliant. But you have to see it from other angles. Beyond enforcement, there is the benefit that compliance brings to the business — and one of the major benefits is trust. Have you ever asked yourself why so many business owners and entrepreneurs, especially the ones on social media, are quick to post their CAC registration certificates when they register? There is a reason: it builds the confidence their clients have in them. There is a presumption that if my business is registered, you will believe I am not a scammer. This has worked over and over — people do their little due diligence check, see the business listed on the CAC portal, and it helps them make the positive decision to go ahead with the transaction.

Beyond that, there are partnerships and expansion. When one business is going to deal with another business, at home or abroad, people do not want to take risks. If there are things you ought to do and you are not doing them, you run the risk of losing out on those deals. Founders should look at compliance beyond the lens of enforcement. Enforcement is going on — the fact that it has not come to you does not mean it is not happening. Someday, somehow, you might be the scapegoat; why wait until then before you do the right thing? And while enforcement might not be consistently applied, opportunities are consistently going around. Do you want to lose opportunities because of one thing you ought to have done and refused to do? That is the question the founder needs to ask themselves.

Building the Business

How did you get your first users on the platform? What did early traction look like?

We are still at an early stage — we launched just a couple of weeks ago. For us, it has been an organic approach so far. We have not done anything heavy on marketing or publicity, because we really want to gather feedback and get the product to a level where it is doing exactly what we want it to do — solving the problem, with users who are happy — before we boost it as much as we can. We are getting users through word of mouth and referrals: founders who have used it, found it genuinely interesting, and shared the link with others. It is gradually growing. That is what I would say.

What has been the hardest part of building Complier that you did not see coming when you started?

The hardest part for me was thinking this would not be accepted in the Nigerian economy — seeing the posture founders have towards compliance, I struggled to accept that a tool like this would be embraced. That does not mean the problem does not exist, or that the product will not solve it; it is about the acceptance of the people, and that massively hindered me and the team from going ahead. But sometimes it is just about taking that risk. We took the risk, we invested, we did what we needed to do — and now, seeing the response come back as positive as it has been is absolutely mind-blowing.

Is Complier funded or bootstrapped right now? And how does the revenue model work — is it a subscription, per-filing fees, or something else?

At the moment we are not externally funded — the platform is still growing on the support and investment of the founders. The revenue model rests heavily on filing fees, and we are integrating subscription fees at the minute, because there are a couple of features coming to the platform that will ease compliance problems not just for business owners but for compliance professionals as well. When those land, subscription fees will also become a source of income and revenue for the platform.

You are essentially asking business owners to trust you with something sensitive, their regulatory filings. How do you build that trust with someone who has never met you?

It is an important question. I think testimony has been doing it. Some people have used it — starting with friends who have businesses, who have been able to test it, use the product, and get services completed for them on it — and that has helped them recommend it to other users. Beyond that, the platform is highly secure: we are heavy on security and data protection. We are a registered organisation, and we have done our own bit to be compliant ourselves.

Vision and the Bigger Picture

Where do you see Complier in three years? Are you building this for Nigeria specifically, or is the broader West African market the real target?

At the minute, we are trying to change the culture of compliance in Nigeria. The goal for us is actually policy influence — we want to influence policies, and even the regulators themselves. We want to be a connection between the business owners the laws have been made for and the lawmakers themselves, so that Nigeria can continually be an easy place to do business. Let us see how that goes — we can talk about expansion when we have properly achieved our goal in Nigeria.

There is a wider RegTech conversation happening across Africa right now. Where does Complier sit in that ecosystem? Is it competing with those other players, complementing them, or is it a different category altogether?

I think at the minute we are not competing as such. I would rather say we are adding our own quota to solving the existing problems other RegTech platforms are solving. We have created a niche and focused on SMEs, which not many RegTech platforms are doing at the moment. Many of the RegTech platforms you see are software-as-a-service providers targeted at big organisations, where you have to deploy the whole software as internal technology to manage your compliance — which is absolutely brilliant. What we have done is demystify that, in a way that serves the other side of the business ecosystem: the entrepreneurs and SMEs who are not catered for, by giving them an affordable platform they can start with. So from my perspective, it is complementary rather than competition.

If you could change one thing about Nigeria’s regulatory environment to make life easier for SMEs, not the product you have built but the system itself, what would it be?

Nigeria’s regulatory environment is very volatile — things change, just as life is constantly changing, and so are the laws. I would think of a system that provides support for business; I think that is what is missing. In developed countries you have it — we have some of it in Nigeria, but not across all sectors: regulatory sandboxes that help founders test their ideas without necessarily having to comply with every law upfront, working together with the regulators to see how those ideas fit into the existing framework. Having more of that kind of support — where the regulator is not a watchdog coming to bite, but a support system — is the one thing I would want to change.

What is the one thing you want every Nigerian SME owner who reads this to walk away knowing?

Let me step away from the product for this one. Your idea is God’s given gift to you. It is an investment — God’s investment in you — and what you make out of it depends on how much you are able to put into it. It is like the law of investment: if you invest rightly, you make the profit. God has invested in you with that business idea and has entrusted you with the work of building that thought and making it profitable. And one of the things you do not want to do is treat legal compliance with a hand of levity — because it has a way of impacting the profit and the results you would get in the process.