NIGERIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Chiagozie Hilary-Nwokonko and Chukwuyere Ebere Izuogu, Streamsowers & Köhn
Streamsowers & Köhn 16D Akin Olugbade Street Victoria Island Lagos Nigeria Tel: +234 1 271 2276 Email: info@sskohn.com Web: sskohn.com
1. Legislation and Enforcing Authorities 1.1 Merger Control Legislation
administer, monitor, and enforce compliance with both general and sector-specific competi - tion laws as they apply to the Nigerian commu - nications market. Pursuant to this mandate, the NCC enacted the Competition Practices Regu - lations 2007 (the CPR) through administrative rule-making. Regulation 26 of the CPR expressly empowers NCC to review all mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers within the communications sector. This sector-specific merger review jurisdiction is exercised concurrently with the FCCPC, reflect - ing a dual regulatory framework for merger con - trol in Nigeria’s communications industry. 1.2 Legislation Relating to Particular Sectors In exercising its rule-making power under the FCCPA, the FCCPC issued the Guidelines on Simplified Process for Foreign-to-Foreign Merg - ers with Nigerian Component (the “Foreign-to- Foreign Merger Guidelines”). These guidelines outline, among other things, the procedure for notifying a foreign-to-foreign merger with a Nige - rian component to the FCCPC and the calcula - tion of applicable notification fees.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protec - tion Act 2018 (FCCPA), enacted in 2019, governs merger review and approval in Nigeria. The Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020 (BOFIA) was enacted in 2020. Section 65 (1) stripped the Federal Competition and Con - sumer Protection Commission (FCCPC or the Commission) of its competition powers with regard to the financial services sector, which is under the regulatory supervision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the financial services reg - ulator. Section 65 (3) further assigned the com - petition regulation powers of the FCCPC to the CBN, thereby subjecting mergers in the financial services sector to the CBN’s regulatory scrutiny. In the communications sector, Section 90 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 confers broad competition oversight powers on the Nige - rian Communications Commission (NCC, the sector-specific regulator for the Nigerian com - munications sector), authorising it to determine,
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