Nigeria has no rules applicable to the protection of trade secrets.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Nigeria to deliver telecom services to end users. However, it is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

In December 2014, Nigeria's National Council on Privatisation (NCP) approved the sale of Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) and its mobile arm (M-Tel) to NATCOM Consortium. The government still owns 25% of the NITEL (the incumbent). The government announced it plans to return to the market to sell the remaining 25% to Nigerians through Initial Public Offering (IPO).

It is reported that Nigeria mandates functional and accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.

According to Art. 31 of the Nigerian Communications Act, no person is allowed to operate a communication system or facility nor provide communication service in Nigeria, unless authorised to do so. Internet Service Provision and Internet Exchange licences authorise the provision of data services. On the other hand, the provision of voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) does not require a license.
However, in order to operate in the Nigerian telecom market, promoters or investors have to register a company in Nigeria whose entity is separate and distinct from its parent company. The locally incorporated branch or subsidiary, in accordance with the provisions of Section 20 of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission Act, must apply to the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission ("NIPC") for company registration and other necessary authorisations and licenses to allow foreign participation.

Nigeria has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

Nigeria is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), nor does it have observer status.

In 1995, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission Act opened all sectors to foreign participation. It allows for full foreign ownership of firms in all but the petroleum sector, where investment is limited to existing joint ventures or new production-sharing agreements.

The main statute that governs patent law in Nigeria is the Patents and Designs Act. Section 3.1 of the Patents and Designs Act requires that foreign applicants have an address for service in Nigeria. It is also reported that foreign applicants must perform patent prosecution through a registered Nigerian Patent Attorney.

Nigeria is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Nigeria has a clear regime of copyright exceptions that follows the fair dealing model, which enables others to make the lawful use of copyrighted work. Section 6 of the Second Schedule of the Copyright Act lists the exceptions, which include research, private use, criticism or review or the reporting of current events subject to the condition that, if the use is public, it shall be accompanied by an acknowledgement of the title of the work and its authorship, except where the work is incidentally included in a broadcast.

It has been reported that intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement agencies lack the necessary resources and inter-agency cooperation to improve enforcement. In addition, it is reported that pirate websites have kept local filmmakers suffocated in recent years by uploading popular titles to the Internet for download once such films hit theatres or debut on streams platforms.

Nigeria is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).