The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has warned lawyers against charging clients for legal services in foreign currencies, describing the practice as unethical and illegal.
The commission’s position has triggered disagreement among members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), with some lawyers arguing that the EFCC does not have the authority to regulate professional fees.
The EFCC Acting Director of the Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, Ikoyi, Bawa Kaltungo, stated the commission’s position on September 11 during a visit by the NBA Task Force on Illegal Practice of Law.
Kaltungo said the EFCC was investigating two cases involving lawyers who allegedly demanded payment in US dollars.
According to him, the naira remains Nigeria’s legal tender, and lawyers found to be charging clients in foreign currencies could face prosecution.
He also accused some lawyers of using the name of the EFCC to justify excessive charges to clients.
The EFCC urged the NBA to cooperate with it in addressing what it described as unethical practices within the legal profession.
However, the position has been challenged by lawyers who questioned the commission’s legal authority to regulate the fees charged by practitioners.
The Chairman of the NBA Gwagwalada Branch, FCT, Nurudeen Abdulsalam, argued that the regulation of lawyers’ remuneration falls under the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Committee rather than the EFCC.
Abdulsalam cited the Legal Practitioners Act, which established the committee and empowered it to regulate professional charges. He also referred to the Legal Practitioners Remuneration (For Business, Legal Service and Representation) Order 2023, which provides a framework for lawyers’ fees.
He argued that there is no specific legal provision that automatically makes an agreement between a lawyer and a client to pay professional fees in foreign currency a criminal offence.
According to him, Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution requires criminal offences and their penalties to be established by written law.
He said the EFCC, as a statutory agency, should operate within the powers granted to it by its enabling legislation.
The Chairman of the NBA Anaocha Branch, Anambra State, Dr Uzoma Dioha, also called for a distinction between the EFCC’s responsibility to investigate economic and financial crimes and the regulation of legal practitioners’ remuneration.
Dioha noted that the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act recognises professional fees among sources of foreign exchange earnings.
He therefore argued that the receipt of professional fees in foreign currency does not, by itself, automatically amount to an economic or financial crime.
Dioha also referred to the Supreme Court case of Osun State Government v. Dalami Nigeria Ltd (2007), which involved claims and awards expressed in US dollars or their naira equivalent.
He acknowledged that the naira is Nigeria’s legal tender under the Central Bank of Nigeria Act but said this should not automatically be interpreted to mean that every foreign-currency arrangement between a lawyer and client is criminal.
Another Abuja-based lawyer, Vivian Igbor, said the EFCC’s position could encourage the use of the naira but questioned how lawyers representing foreign clients would operate if they were required to receive payment only in naira.
Igbor said international clients often make payments in foreign currencies and noted that Nigerian banks provide domiciliary accounts for such transactions.
A senior lawyer, Chief Chukwuma Nwachukwu, also questioned the legal basis for the EFCC’s position, arguing that an offence must be clearly established in written law before prosecution can take place.
He noted that foreign-currency transactions are also used in some sectors of the Nigerian economy, including oil and gas.
Nwachukwu maintained that the issue of refusing naira as payment for services should be distinguished from agreements in which professional fees are denominated or paid in foreign currency.
The newly inaugurated national leadership of the NBA had not formally responded to the EFCC’s position at the time of the report.
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