Lawyers have raised concerns over difficulties accessing the Nigerian Bar Association’s Digital Seal and Stamp platform after attempts to open the service returned a browser security warning, leaving some practitioners searching for alternative ways to affix the mandatory professional seal to documents.
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The complaints surfaced on Tuesday as lawyers shared screenshots showing Google Chrome displaying the warning, “Your connection is not private,” while attempting to access the NBA Digital Seal platform.
One lawyer, apparently faced with an urgent filing, appealed to colleagues on social media: “Lawyers on the TL, urgent help needed to affix a digital seal on a document.”
A screenshot accompanying the complaints showed the browser returning the error code NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID while attempting to open www.digitalseal.nigerianbar.online.
The browser further stated that the server could not prove that it was the website the user intended to visit because the security certificate being presented was issued for another hostname.
Such an error ordinarily arises where the security certificate presented by a website does not correspond with the domain being visited. It can be caused by an SSL/TLS certificate or server configuration problem and does not, standing alone, establish that the website has been hacked or that users’ information has been compromised.
There is also an important distinction in this case. The NBA’s own official notices direct lawyers to digitalseal.nigerianbar.online, without the “www” prefix. A check of that address on Tuesday showed that the main portal was responding and displaying its Digital Seal interface. The difficulty shown in the screenshot therefore appears, at least from the information presently available, to affect the “www” version of the address rather than conclusively establishing that the entire Digital Seal service is offline.
The development has nevertheless generated frustration because the platform is intended to provide lawyers with a quick digital route for authenticating professional documents.
The NBA formally announced the application process for the relaunched Digital Stamp and Seal on February 9, 2026, describing the system as part of its drive to strengthen document authenticity, curb impersonation and make authentication faster and more convenient for lawyers.
Under the system, lawyers are expected to log in with their Supreme Court Number and registered credentials, purchase or claim digital seals, upload completed PDF documents, position the seal on the relevant page and download the sealed document. Each processed document carries a QR-based verification feature.
The service was subsequently expanded in March with the introduction of the NBA Digital Signature Studio, which permits practitioners to create and save electronic signatures and apply them together with their digital seals to documents. The NBA said documents processed through the service are not retained on its server, while verification fingerprints and metadata are recorded for authentication.
The Digital Seal initiative had itself been approved by the NBA National Executive Council as an end-to-end electronic system intended to complement the traditional physical stamp and seal. Young lawyers of between zero and seven years post-call were also approved to receive a complimentary pack of digital seals.
TheNigeriaLawyer had reported when the application process went live in February, with the Association urging practitioners to begin using the system as part of the transition towards electronic legal practice.
The platform has, however, attracted controversy before now. Shortly after its rollout, a data-protection professional raised concerns over the requirement for lawyers to upload potentially confidential client documents to an online platform and questioned aspects of the system’s security architecture. Those were the author’s criticisms of the platform, while the NBA subsequently maintained that documents are not stored on its servers.
Tuesday’s access complaint has revived a wider conversation among practitioners about the reliability of the technology on which lawyers are increasingly expected to depend for everyday professional work.
Some lawyers reacting online also directed criticism at the current NBA leadership, with comments accusing the Association’s President, Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okunsanya, SAN, of being “busy travelling” while issues affecting lawyers’ day-to-day practice require attention.
That criticism represents the views of the lawyers making it and does not establish that the President’s movements have any connection with the technical problem affecting access to the portal.
Badejo-Okunsanya assumed office as the 33rd President of the NBA at the end of August 2026 after succeeding Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN. In her inaugural commitment, she promised an Association that would be more responsive to practitioners and said her administration would work towards enabling lawyers to “earn better, live better, and practise better.”
The Digital Seal system itself predates her administration. It was approved and rolled out during Osigwe’s tenure, with the February 2026 relaunch and March introduction of the Digital Signature Studio forming part of the former administration’s digital transformation programme.
The immediate concern for affected lawyers, however, is practical: a practitioner faced with a filing deadline needs to be able to authenticate a document without encountering a browser warning that advises against proceeding.
The NBA’s published support channel for difficulties with the Digital Seal Portal is support@digitalseal.zohodesk.com. Its official guide also recommends that lawyers access the service using a laptop or tablet for document preview and seal placement.
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