NIGERIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Chiagozie Hilary-Nwokonko, Chukwuyere Ebere Izuogu and Priscilla Bidemi Ben-Okoh, Streamsowers & Köhn
Streamsowers & Köhn 852B Bishop Aboyade Cole Street Victoria Island Lagos Nigeria
Tel: +234 201 291 0589 Email: info@sskohn.com Web: sskohn.com
Introduction Nigeria’s merger control regime continued to mature through 2025–2026, characterised by sustained transaction activity, broader regulatory scrutiny and increasing convergence between competition law, consumer protection, sector regulation and data governance. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) remains the princi - pal authority responsible for merger review under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 (FCCPA). However, merger oversight now oper - ates within a broader and increasingly interconnected institutional ecosystem involving sector regulators, data protection authorities, financial regulators and, in contested matters, the courts. Macroeconomic conditions and continuing policy reforms have also materially influenced transaction structuring and execution. Foreign exchange volatil - ity, inflationary pressure and elevated financing costs have required parties to adopt more cautious valua - tion, pricing and risk allocation strategies. At the same time, regulators continue to balance competition and consumer welfare objectives against the wider policy imperative of attracting long-term investment into strategic sectors such as energy transition, logistics, digital infrastructure, healthcare and consumer mar - kets. Nigeria’s merger control landscape has correspond - ingly become more active and sophisticated. A review of the FCCPC Merger Notification Portal indicates that, since our last publication in September 2025, at least 46 merger matters have been published, includ - ing share acquisitions, asset acquisitions and at least
one joint venture transaction. Three broad trends emerge from these filings. First, a significant proportion of the matters appear to have proceeded under the simplified procedure, sug - gesting that many transactions did not raise substan - tial competition concerns within the Nigerian market notwithstanding continued filing activity. Secondly, a meaningful number of the notifications involved foreign-to-foreign or cross-border transactions with a Nigerian nexus, reinforcing the FCCPC’s continu - ing willingness to assert jurisdiction where statutory thresholds are met and local market effects are pre - sent. Thirdly, transaction activity remained particularly visible in healthcare, energy and infrastructure, media and technology, manufacturing, telecommunications, construction and other consumer-facing industries. Collectively, these developments indicate that merg - er control has become more firmly embedded within transaction planning and execution in Nigeria. Parties are increasingly devoting greater attention to jurisdic - tional analysis, filing strategy, interim conduct obli - gations, regulatory sequencing and execution risk at earlier stages of deal planning. At a broader policy level, merger control is increas - ingly being treated as part of Nigeria’s wider market governance framework, operating alongside finan - cial regulation, sector licensing, consumer protection and data protection oversight. This broader regulatory lens helps explain why transactions that may appear competitively unproblematic from a traditional market share perspective can nevertheless attract regulatory interest where issues relating to pricing behaviour,
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