FEDERAL COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT 2019; A DEATH KNELL ON THE REGULATORY ROLE OF THE SEC AS REGARDS MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This ground breaking business legislation came into being on the 5th of February 2019. Before the birth of this legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission was saddled with the provision of apex regulation as regards mergers in Nigeria, with emphasis on antitrust. One of the highpoints of this legislation is the annihilation of sections 118 to 128 of the Investments and Securities Act. The ISA provided the SEC the needed regulatory gravitas to regulate the Capital Market for which Merger review and approval happened to be one of the contents. As shrewd as this piece of legislation may seem, it is the contention of this work that regulatory remit of the SEC did not suffer a total obliteration. It is also in this wise that this work further contents that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission not being a corporate finance institution, will be ill tooled to solely embark on the review of merger documents of public companies without the regulatory input and imprimatur of the SEC.