Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2019 – Impact on Private Equity Deal Making in Nigeria

After about 17 years of attempting to introduce competition legislation, Nigeria finally passed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2019 (“FCCPA” or the “Act”) in the first quarter of 2019.

Introduction

The Act contains comprehensive provisions in relation to competition and has made significant modifications to the merger control regime. Before 2019, in addition to sector regulations, which provided for prior approval of mergers and acquisitions, the regulator responsible for merger control was the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) by virtue of the Investment and Securities Act, 2007 (“ISA”). The SEC at that time acted as regulator for both securities and competition in mergers and acquisition transactions.
Indeed, to most stakeholders, the SEC was more of a regulator for the former than the latter. It is against this background that the passing of the FCCPA has introduced a new regime.

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