Odita Sunday 
Receiving Legal Fees in Dollars Is Not a Crime: EFCC’s Overreach and the True Position of Nigerian Law
By Samuel Ihensekhien Junior
The recent threat by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to prosecute Nigerian lawyers who charge or receive professional fees in United States dollars is not only alarming — it is fundamentally wrong in law. It rests on a dangerous misunderstanding of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act and a failure to distinguish between legal tender rules and the freedom of contract that remains a cornerstone of Nigerian jurisprudence.
Section 20(5) of the CBN Act 2007 is clear and narrow. It criminalises only one specific act: the refusal to accept the Naira as a means of payment. It does not prohibit parties from agreeing that an obligation may be denominated or settled in a foreign currency. Quoting a fee in dollars, or receiving payment in dollars when both parties freely agree, does not, without more, constitute a criminal offence under the Act. To treat every receipt of USD as automatically criminal is to rewrite the statute.
Nigerian courts have long recognised this distinction. In Saeby Jernstoberi M.F. A/S v. Olaogun Enterprises Ltd (1999) 14 NWLR (Pt. 637) 128, the Supreme Court affirmed that Nigerian courts have jurisdiction to entertain claims and enter judgment in foreign currency. The Court held that the old rule to the contrary had become obsolete in light of modern international commerce. Subsequent decisions, including Koya v. United Bank for Africa Ltd and First Bank of Nigeria Plc v. Ozokwere, have consistently upheld the same principle. Where parties contract in dollars, the courts will give effect to that bargain and may award judgment in the agreed currency (or its Naira equivalent at the appropriate rate).
The principle of freedom of contract reinforces this position. Nigerian courts have repeatedly held that parties are at liberty to determine the terms of their agreement, including the currency of payment, provided the agreement is not illegal or contrary to public policy. As the Supreme Court emphasised in decisions such as Statoil (Nigeria) Ltd v. Inducon (Nigeria) Ltd, government policy cannot override the autonomy of contracting parties. A fee agreement between a lawyer and a client expressed in USD is a private contractual arrangement. Unless the lawyer refuses Naira when it is tendered, no criminal offence under the CBN Act arises.
Internationally, the House of Lords decision in Miliangos v. George Frank (Textiles) Ltd [1976] AC 443 established that English courts may give judgment in foreign currency — a principle Nigerian courts have found persuasive. More recently, the UK Supreme Court in Process & Industrial Developments Ltd v. Federal Republic of Nigeria [2025] UKSC 36 confirmed that legal costs follow the currency in which the lawyers billed and were paid. These authorities underscore a simple commercial reality: the currency of professional fees is a matter of contract, not criminal prohibition.
The Federal High Court conviction in F.R.N. v. ICE by CW & Aniogor Godswill Obiajulu has been rightly criticised by leading practitioners. That decision stretched the CBN Act and the Money Laundering Act beyond their proper limits. Merely pricing or accepting payment in dollars does not automatically amount to a refusal of Naira, nor does it convert legitimate professional earnings into proceeds of crime.
Lawyers are entitled to charge reasonable fees under the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Order and the Rules of Professional Conduct. Nothing in those instruments criminalises denomination in foreign currency. Where a client is international, or where both parties prefer the relative stability of the dollar, receiving payment in USD is neither unethical nor illegal.
The EFCC’s threatened prosecutions risk converting policy preference into criminal liability. That is not how the rule of law works. Section 20(5) protects the Naira by punishing refusal — it does not outlaw foreign-currency contracts. Nigerian professionals, including lawyers, must be free to agree the currency of their remuneration without the threat of criminal charges based on a misreading of the statute.
The law is clear. Receiving payment in dollars for professional work, by mutual agreement, is not a crime.
Samuel ihensekhien Jnr
(Is simply a student scholar.)
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