Documenting a JV agreement: what to include
The terms that need to be in writing before construction starts.
A Nigerian landowner-developer JV agreement should document the revenue split, decision rights during construction, timelines, and, critically, what happens on cost overruns or delays. Disputes on JV projects most often trace back to one of these being left undocumented rather than genuinely unforeseeable events.
Most JV disputes in Nigeria aren't caused by bad faith, they're caused by a term nobody wrote down clearly enough to point back to when something didn't go as planned.
What needs to be in writing
- The revenue split, and exactly what it's calculated against.
- Decision rights during construction, including who approves changes and overruns.
- Timelines, with consequences if either side causes a delay.
- What happens on a cost overrun, and who absorbs it.
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Check Compliance For FreeQuestions people also ask
Do I need a lawyer to draft a JV agreement?
It's strongly worth having legal input on the documented terms, since disputes on JV projects most often trace back to a term that was assumed rather than written down clearly enough to point back to later.
What's the single most commonly missed clause?
Decision rights during construction, specifically who approves changes and cost overruns as they come up, tends to be assumed rather than documented, and is one of the more common sources of dispute once a project is underway.
Does the agreement need to specify what happens on a delay, not just a cost overrun?
Yes. Timelines with clear consequences if either side causes a delay are one of the core terms worth documenting alongside the revenue split and overrun handling, not an optional addition.
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