Conceptual or Pragmatic? Differentiating Floating Charges from Unitary Security Interests under Nigerian Law

A key novelty of the unitary system of personal property security law is the concept of security interests or rights developed to address the rather complex categorizations of security rights under the common law. With respect to the limitations of floating charges as security devices for loans under the common law, there were expectations that the unitary security interest could provide an alternative security device capable of addressing the problems faced by hitherto inhibited business borrowers. This article compares the floating charge device to the unitary security interest in some critical areas to ascertain whether the latter ameliorates the difficulties associated with floating charges or whether it merely creates an added conceptual burden within the framework of an already convoluted secured transactions system.