NIGERIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Chiagozie Hilary-Nwokonko, Chukwuyere Ebere Izuogu and Priscilla Bidemi Ben-Okoh, Streamsowers & Köhn
ties should therefore anticipate regulatory scrutiny extending beyond concentration metrics to include pricing models, consumer complaints, transparency practices and the robustness of internal compliance systems. Similarly, the FCCPC’s intervention involv - ing Ikeja Electric in December 2025 demonstrated the Commission’s growing willingness to utilise enforce - able undertakings, monitoring mechanisms and com - pliance timelines as regulatory tools. For transactions involving essential services, infrastructure or regulat - ed utilities, parties proposing behavioural remedies should therefore expect careful scrutiny concerning implementability, governance structures, reporting mechanisms and consequences for non-compliance. Behavioural remedies in such sectors may become increasingly complex because they frequently require long-term monitoring, operational supervision and co-ordination between multiple regulators. This raises legitimate policy questions concerning remedy admin - istrability, enforcement consistency and institutional capacity, particularly in sectors involving significant infrastructure asymmetry or politically sensitive pric - ing issues. Taken together, these developments indicate that the FCCPC increasingly views consumer outcomes, pricing transparency and service reliability as integral components of market governance rather than merely post-transaction conduct issues. Digital Markets, Consumer Finance and Data Governance The FCCPC’s activities in digital markets during 2025– 2026 increasingly reflected the convergence between competition regulation, consumer protection and data governance. A particularly significant develop - ment was the introduction of the Digital, Electronic, Online, or Non-Traditional (DEON) Consumer Lend - ing Regulations 2025, aimed at addressing persistent concerns within Nigeria’s digital lending ecosystem. The DEON framework establishes registration require - ments together with detailed obligations concerning disclosure, transparency, consumer protection, data governance and debt recovery practices. Public reporting and FCCPC communications indicate that non-compliance may expose undertakings to sub -
stantial financial penalties and potential director-level consequences in serious cases. For transaction planning, the significance of the DEON regime lies in the increasing centrality of consumer protection and data governance considerations in mergers involving fintechs, digital lenders, credit infrastructure businesses and data-driven financial platforms. Where transaction value is linked to scale, data analyt - ics or digital ecosystems, regulators may increasingly scrutinise consent mechanisms, privacy governance, complaints history, collection practices and third-par - ty commercial relationships. This reflects a broader international trend in which digital competition concerns are increasingly linked to data concentration, ecosystem integration and user dependency rather than solely to conventional price- based analysis. In platform markets, the accumulation of data and user engagement may create competitive advantages that are difficult for rivals to replicate even in the absence of high market shares. Accordingly, merger assessment in digital markets is increasingly likely to involve questions concerning interoperability, switching costs, platform neutrality and the potential leveraging of data advantages across adjacent ser - vices. Data Protection Enforcement and Merger Risk Nigeria’s data protection regime has also become increasingly active, with broader implications for merg - er review in data-intensive markets. The enforcement proceedings involving Meta Platforms Inc. before the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) repre - sent an important parallel development within Nige - ria’s wider digital regulatory landscape. The NDPC proceedings reportedly concerned allegations relat - ing to unlawful data processing, consent deficiencies, non-compliant cross-border data transfers and broad - er concerns regarding algorithmic practices affecting Nigerian users. Public reporting indicates that the matter moved towards settlement in late 2025, with commitments relating to improved transparency, con - sent frameworks, data governance safeguards and accountability mechanisms.
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