NIGERIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Chiagozie Hilary-Nwokonko, Chukwuyere Ebere Izuogu and Priscilla Bidemi Ben-Okoh, Streamsowers & Köhn
consumer outcomes, access conditions, platform conduct or data governance arise. This direction broadly reflects wider international competition policy trends observable in jurisdictions such as the Euro - pean Union, the United Kingdom, South Africa, India and Brazil, where regulators are increasingly assess - ing digital and consumer-facing transactions through broader ecosystem and consumer welfare lenses rather than relying solely on traditional concentration metrics. Accordingly, notifying parties should expect regulatory scrutiny extending beyond conventional market defi - nition and horizontal overlap analysis. The FCCPC is increasingly focused on the potential impact of trans - actions on consumer welfare, pricing practices, data governance, digital conduct and the practical ability of merging parties to implement and monitor compliance commitments effectively. Merger Activity in 2025–2026 Merger activity during 2025 and early 2026 reflected a market increasingly focused on resilience, portfolio optimisation and strategic repositioning rather than aggressive expansion. The publication of at least 46 merger matters by the FCCPC since our last publi - cation demonstrates that transaction activity has remained relatively robust despite continuing mac - roeconomic pressures, including foreign exchange instability, inflation and tighter financing conditions. Energy, infrastructure, healthcare, consumer goods, telecommunications, technology and other consum - er-facing sectors remained particularly active. Both domestic and cross-border transactions continued to trigger Nigerian merger notification requirements where local nexus thresholds were satisfied. The pattern of filings also suggests that competition compliance has become an established and integral component of transaction execution rather than a late- stage procedural consideration. The prominence of simplified procedure filings points to a steady volume of comparatively straightforward transactions, while the continued presence of foreign-to-foreign notifica - tions confirms Nigeria’s growing significance within broader multi-jurisdictional transaction planning.
Within the energy sector, familiar themes continued to shape transactional activity, including upstream divest - ments, portfolio rationalisation, increasing investment in gas as a transition fuel, and incremental expansion in renewables, embedded power and energy services. Although publicly available competition assessments in relation to energy transactions remain relatively lim - ited, competition concerns are becoming increasingly significant in markets characterised by infrastructure concentration, particularly in midstream logistics and downstream distribution, where pricing and consumer welfare considerations can rapidly acquire regulatory and political significance. In infrastructure-intensive sectors such as energy logistics, telecommunications and payments infra - structure, competition concerns increasingly arise not merely from horizontal overlaps, but from control over infrastructure that may be costly, difficult or time- consuming for rivals to replicate. In such sectors, reg - ulators are increasingly required to balance long-term investment incentives against the risks of foreclosure, discriminatory access conditions and consumer harm. Digital and technology markets present additional complexity. In many transactions, competitive signifi - cance increasingly derives not merely from turnover or traditional concentration indicators, but from control over data, user attention, interoperability pathways and ecosystem integration. Network effects, switching costs and data-driven feedback loops may reinforce market power even where conventional market share indicators appear modest. Consequently, even trans - actions involving relatively modest transaction values may attract heightened regulatory attention where they concern digital platforms, communications infra - structure, payments systems or data-intensive busi - ness models. Parties should therefore be prepared to address issues relating to control over strategic data - sets, interoperability, exclusivity arrangements, data portability and the handling of competitively sensitive information during diligence and post-closing integra - tion. Taken together, these developments suggest that merger review in Nigeria is becoming progressively less concerned solely with structural concentration and increasingly attentive to how market power may
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