On 10 September 2025, the Anambra State Igbo Apprenticeship Law, 2025, becomes effective. The law marks the first statutory recognition of the Igba boi system, also known as the Igbo apprenticeship model in Nigeria. The State Government’s regulation of the Igba boi system promotes recognition and contexts.
Background
The Igba boi system drives enterprise and wealth creation across eastern Nigeria. The Igba boi model has survived over the years as an informal system, rooted in kinship, trust, and community values. But Anambra State Government’s legal framework seeks to regulate the Igba boi system, making it accountable and protecting both mentors (oga) and apprentices (nwa Boi or trainee).
Key Features of Anambra State Igbo Apprenticeship Law, 2025
The law applies to Igba boi (traditional, unpaid apprenticeship leading to settlement capital) and trainee apprenticeships (where the apprentice pays fees for training). Its core objectives are to:
- Regulate apprenticeship agreements by requiring all contracts to be in writing.
- Establish a state database of apprentices and masters.
- Provide redress mechanisms through mediation, commission-led dispute resolution, and courts.
- Discourage abuse and safeguard welfare, including meals, safe accommodation, and humane treatment.
- Boost trade and commerce through structured apprenticeship outcomes.
Significantly, the Anambra State Igbo Apprenticeship Law, 2025, caps the apprenticeship period at seven years. The apprenticeship eligibility benchmark is JSS 3 (junior secondary school three) Basic Education Certificate.
This legislation on the Igba Boi system creates a dedicated Igbo Apprenticeship Commission, empowered to register agreements, issue certificates of completion, mediate disputes, and maintain standards.
Global Perspectives on Igba Boi
Globally, scholars have studied the Igba boi system as one of the most successful models of informal venture capital and human capital transfer. Harvard Business Review described it as perhaps the “world’s largest business incubator.”
Arguments for the system include:
- Entrepreneurial democratisation: It provides startup capital and skills to those lacking formal education or financial access.
- Low default rates: Apprentices, having served loyally, are culturally bound to succeed and “honour” their settlement.
- Community-driven scaling: The system has replicated across generations, producing business leaders in trade, logistics, and manufacturing.
Arguments against the system include:
- Risk of exploitation: Apprentices often endure long hours, unpaid labour, and little recourse if the oga
- Gender exclusion: Historically, the system favoured young men, limiting women’s participation.
- Informality: Lack of written agreements has led to disputes and mistrust.
In our view, the Anambra law responds to these critiques by insisting on written agreements, welfare obligations, and formal dispute resolution, while preserving the cultural essence of settlement.
Fit Within Nigerian Legal Framework
Before the Igba Boi law, the Labour and Child Rights Act indirectly applied to Nigerian apprenticeships. We shall return to this question shortly.
Both laws set minimum standards for contracts of service and child protection, but not for indigenous systems like Igba boi. Globally seen as TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training).
Key gaps that the Anambra law addresses include:
- Contract enforceability: Mandating writing creates clear terms for settlement and welfare.
- Dispute resolution: It provides a sequence—family mediation, market leadership, commission, and courts—reflecting cultural and formal justice mechanisms.
- Recognition of settlement obligations: While the Labour Act does not recognise settlement as part of employment, this law enshrines it as enforceable.
The Lawyer Long Tail
However, the law raises questions. While the Igba Boi Law requires welfare and meals, it does not fully define occupational health and safety standards for apprentices.
Nor does it resolve whether settlements (capital given at the end) are wages, gifts, or enforceable debts under the contract law.
The germane question of whether the settlements (capital at the end of Boi) is capital, wages, gifts, or debts raises potential conflict with the federal government’s exclusive powers in labour, employment, and related matters.
Where the Anambra State Igbo Apprenticeship Law, 2025, is read in the context of Nigeria’s labour regulation framework that sets the federal baseline for child labour under 15 years cannot be employed, the Igba Boi Law is an illegitimate use of public resources.
However, if judicially recognised as a structured skill acquisition rather than conventional employment, the Igba Boi Law creates a narrow, regulated exception to child labour prohibitions.
So long as apprentices have basic education, receive humane treatment, and a settlement (startup capital) for training outcomes.
On the constitutional question, labour and employment are matters on the Exclusive Legislative List, reserved for the Federal Government.
Does a state law regulating apprenticeship encroach on federal powers? The Igba Boi Law is arguably valid because it frames apprenticeship as a matter of commerce, vocational training, and entrepreneurship development under state competence.
The enforceability of the Igba Boi Law depends on judicial interpretation. Still, its policy intent, to align local entrepreneurial traditions with modern legal safeguards, remains compelling.
Conclusion
The codification of Igba boi may have far-reaching socio-economic consequences. Consider the story of Cosmas Maduka (Coscharis Group), who started as an apprentice at age 7, endured hardship, and later became one of Nigeria’s most successful businessmen.
Or Innoson Chukwuma, Nigeria’s first indigenous car manufacturer, whose journey also began through apprenticeship. These stories illustrate the transformative power of the Igba Boi system. Still, they also show the risks of leaving such a system to oral promises and goodwill alone.
By providing a legal backbone, the law may boost confidence in apprenticeship as a career pathway, attract donor support, and align Nigeria’s informal sector with global entrepreneurship frameworks.
Yet, it must balance formalisation without bureaucratisation, ensuring that regulation does not choke the cultural trust that made Igba boi thrive.
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