Introducing Trellis Africa: Building Compliance Infrastructure for Modern African Businesses

A few weeks ago, I came across a report that stopped me mid-scroll. According to official reports, the EFCC arraigned a senior executive of an international operator for failing to designate a management-level compliance officer. Not only was the company charged, but the executive herself was also held personally liable for multiple breaches under Nigeria’s anti-money laundering framework.

I read the story carefully, not to sensationalize anyone’s ordeal or merely to extract the “gist” of the whole thing, but because it reinforced something I have been thinking about for years. Compliance in today’s regulatory climate is no longer optional.

Between the strengthened provisions in the Investments and Securities Act, the recent sweeping reform of Nigeria’s tax regime, ongoing data protection enforcement, and the steady rise of industry-specific regulations, companies now face a compliance landscape that is broader, deeper, and significantly more unforgiving. Regulators expect credible systems, proper documentation, and timely filings. Investors expect the same. And when either one finds gaps, the consequences can be expensive, damaging, and, as the recent case shows, sometimes personally damaging.

This is the environment Nigerian and African businesses now operate in. Companies are building products faster than they are building infrastructure. Teams are scaling without governance systems. Startups with strong fundamentals fail due diligence not because the business is flawed, but because their documents are scattered, their filings are overdue, or their operational controls do not exist.

I have seen this pattern repeatedly. The gaps are real, the cost is real, and the impact on investment readiness is even more real.

That is why today, I am pleased to announce the launch of Trellis Africa, a new compliance infrastructure enterprise I am building with my friend and partner, Samuel Oloke.

What Trellis Does

Trellis exists to help African businesses build the systems they need to grow responsibly and meet investor, regulatory, and governance expectations. Our approach is simple: structure before scale and systems before chaos. Drawing from our experience in law, corporate governance, and regulatory practice, we designed Trellis to serve as a modern compliance backbone for startups, SMEs, and impact-driven organizations.

Our core offerings, as outlined in our Sales Sheet, include:

1. Compliance Health Checks A full audit of a company’s filings, governance structures, and risk exposure. We identify gaps, prioritize them, and deliver a clear roadmap for fixing them.

2. Compliance System Builds: We design and implement complete compliance infrastructure from scratch. This includes organized document repositories, automated compliance calendars, templates, dashboards, and team training.

3. ESG and Impact Frameworks For organisations engaging investors or donors, we build measurable, structured ESG and impact reporting systems that meet international expectations.

4. Retainer Services 2 Ongoing compliance management at a predictable monthly rate. This includes monitoring filings, maintaining documentation, supporting audits, and providing continuous advisory. Everything we offer is fixed-price, transparent, and tailored to the realities of African companies. No variable billing. No guesswork. No waiting weeks for simple responses.

   
   

Why It Matters

Across Africa, businesses are innovating at an impressive pace, but compliance expectations are rising even faster. Investors are tightening due diligence standards. Regulators are enforcing more consistently.

Stakeholders are demanding clearer governance. Companies need reliable systems that keep them ready at all times. Not just during fundraising or when a regulator comes knocking, but at all times. This is the gap that Trellis is built to fill.

Our long-term goal is to become a trusted and viable compliance infrastructure platform for businesses across Africa, as a partner that gives companies the order, governance, and predictability they need to grow sustainably. To achieve that, in the short term, we are committed to the pursuit of knowledge and excellence, carrying out our activities with a gold standard that we will build our company ethos around.

Closing Thoughts

Launching Trellis is the first step. Over the coming months, Samuel and I will continue refining our tools, expanding our capabilities, and working closely with founders, operators, and 3 organizations who recognize the importance of strong compliance in a modern business environment.

If you would like to learn more, collaborate, or onboard your company, you can send me an email at mide@trellis.sbs or send a text through any of my social platforms.

We are excited for what the future holds because African businesses deserve infrastructure that supports their ambition.

Trellis is our contribution to that future.

This article was initially published on LinkedIn on the 10th of December 2025 to herald the launch of Trellis Africa to the public.