Abstract

Under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 (FCCPA), by section 2(3), the FCCPA applies to a citizen of Nigeria or a person ordinarily resident in Nigeria; a body corporate incorporated in Nigeria or carrying on business within Nigeria including any person in relation to the acquisition of shares or other assets outside Nigeria resulting in the change of control of a business, part of a business or any asset of a business, in Nigeria. The FCCPA and merger guidelines and threshold issued by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) evinced extra-territorial applicability with respect to cross border mergers. Thus, this paper which adopted the doctrinal methodology and observed that there is an absence of a jurisdictional nexus that can trigger the combined stratum of the FCCPC merger threshold; absence of an ad valorem limitation with respect to mergers under the combined stratum and the non-provision of an envisaged timetable for the review of non-expedited foreign-to-foreign mergers. Accordingly, the recommendation of this paper includes that the relevant provisions of the FCCPA and FCCPC Merger Threshold of 2019 and Guidelines for Foreign to Foreign mergers should be amended.