EFCC’s push to block payment of legal fees in foreign currency draws backlash

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA — A fresh row is brewing between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and legal practitioners across the country over a renewed push to bar the use of foreign currency in settling legal fees.
The anti-graft agency, on September 11, condemned the practice of lawyers billing their clients in foreign currencies as “unethical and illegal,” warning that it would take decisive action against offenders.
The EFCC’s Acting Director of the Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, Ikoyi, Bawa Kaltungo, stated the agency’s position during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Task Force on Illegal Practice of Law.
Kaltungo disclosed that the Commission is currently handling two cases involving lawyers who allegedly charged their clients in foreign currencies.
He said: “We are also worried about the activities of lawyers who are involved in illegal and unethical practices.
“We have two cases of lawyers who were found to have charged fees in dollars. This is unethical and illegal, as the naira is the country’s legal tender.
“We usually don’t want to have issues with members of the NBA. However, some lawyers are pushing us. Any lawyer we find culpable of charging clients in foreign currencies will be prosecuted.”
According to the EFCC Acting Zonal Director, there are cases of lawyers invoking the name of the anti-graft agency to impose excessive charges on clients.
He contended that though legal practitioners have the right to determine their professional fees, that right should not be exercised through false claims that part of the foreign currency requested was meant for the Commission.
“Lawyers should stop name-dropping the EFCC to overcharge their clients.
“They have the right to charge their clients as much as they like, but they shouldn’t drag the EFCC into it. They should desist from all these unethical practices,” he added.
The EFCC, therefore, urged the NBA to support its bid to rid the legal profession of “unscrupulous practitioners,” insisting the conduct of a few lawyers should not undermine the integrity of the profession.
Meanwhile, the anti-graft agency appears to have stirred a hornet’s nest, its stance drawing backlash from lawyers who accuse it of overstepping its statutory remit.
Reacting to the issue, the Chairman of the Gwagwalada, FCT, Branch of the NBA, Nurudeen Abdulsalam, maintained that the EFCC lacked the statutory power to regulate professional fees charged by lawyers.
He argued that the Legal Practitioners Act, Cap. L11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, expressly vests the regulation of lawyers’ remuneration in the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Committee, and not the EFCC.
Abdulsalam stressed that Section 15 of the Act established the committee, while Section 15(3) empowers it to regulate lawyers’ charges, including private agreements on professional fees negotiated between practitioners and their clients.
It was his position that the committee had since exercised that statutory mandate through the Legal Practitioners Remuneration (For Business, Legal Service and Representation) Order 2023, enacted pursuant to Section 15(3) of the Act.
The 2023 Order, he said, provided the framework for various forms of remuneration for lawyers, including fees for consultations, legal opinions, corporate practice, litigation, property transactions and other professional services.
The Gwagwalada branch Chairman of the NBA noted that the legal body had consistently emphasised that the 2023 Remuneration Order remained the definitive and enforceable benchmark for professional legal fees across the federation.
He further observed the absence of any legal instrument delegitimising an agreement for a lawyer to receive professional fees from a client in a foreign currency.
Abdulsalam backed his position with Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which forbids conviction of any person for a criminal offence not defined, with its penalty prescribed, in a written law.
“Regulatory governance over legal practice remains the exclusive province of the Legal Practitioners Act, the Remuneration Committee, the 2023 Remuneration Order, and the Rules of Professional Conduct.
“As a creature of statute, the EFCC must operate strictly within the jurisdictional boundaries defined by its enabling legislation.
“Professional regulation cannot be substituted with prosecutorial overreach or intimidation.
“The rule of law binds all institutions and citizens alike, most notably those entrusted with its enforcement,” he stated.
Like Abdulsalam, his colleague, the Chairman of the Anaocha branch of the NBA in Anambra State, Dr. Uzoma Dioha, said the EFCC must distinguish its legitimate statutory mandate of investigating and prosecuting economic and financial crimes from the regulation of the professional remuneration of legal practitioners.
“The EFCC is an important law-enforcement institution and deserves the cooperation of the Bar in the fight against corruption, money laundering and economic crimes.
“Indeed, the EFCC itself recognises the importance of collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association in relation to anti-money-laundering compliance.
“However, such cooperation cannot enlarge the statutory powers of the Commission beyond those conferred upon it by law.
“Indeed, the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act expressly recognises foreign currency derived from ‘agency commissions, professional fees and other forms of invisible earnings’ as a source of foreign currency capable of being sold in the foreign exchange market.
“That statutory language is particularly significant. It makes it difficult to sustain a sweeping proposition that the mere receipt of professional fees in foreign currency is, in itself and in every circumstance, a criminal offence.”
Continuing, the Anaocha NBA branch Chairman argued that there is a subsisting judgment recognising foreign-currency obligations and awards.
“In Osun State Government v. Dalami Nigeria Ltd [2007], the litigation itself involved substantial claims and awards expressed in United States dollars or their naira equivalent.
“The naira remains legal tender — but that does not automatically criminalise every foreign-currency fee arrangement.
“We acknowledge without reservation that Section 20 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 establishes CBN-issued currency as legal tender in Nigeria. Section 20(5) also makes refusal to accept the naira as a means of payment an offence, subject to the CBN’s statutory power to prescribe circumstances and conditions under which other currencies may be used as a medium of exchange.
“That provision must, however, be carefully distinguished from the much broader proposition that every agreement between a lawyer and client which references or involves foreign currency automatically constitutes a crime prosecutable by the EFCC.
“The law should not be extended by administrative pronouncement beyond the words enacted by the National Assembly.
“There are also judicial decisions that have considered restrictions surrounding foreign-currency obligations, including employment arrangements, so this is an area requiring careful legal analysis rather than categorical pronouncements. For example, the National Industrial Court has considered Section 20(5) of the CBN Act in the context of salaries denominated in US dollars.

“Consequently, the safer and more accurate legal proposition is not that lawyers possess an unlimited right to insist on foreign currency in every domestic transaction. Rather, it is that the mere fact that a lawyer and client agree upon, denominate, or receive professional fees in foreign currency does not, without identification of a specific statutory prohibition applicable to the transaction, automatically constitute an economic or financial crime.
“No criminal offence can be created by a press statement. The Constitution is unequivocal on criminal liability. Section 36(12) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) embodies the principle that a person cannot be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty prescribed in a written law.
“Therefore, where prosecution is threatened against a lawyer merely because his professional fee is denominated or received in foreign currency, the fundamental question must be:
“What specific written law creates the offence, and what provision prescribes the punishment?
“A regulatory warning cannot substitute for legislation. Neither the EFCC nor any administrative agency can create a criminal offence through a circular, press release, public advisory, or institutional policy,” the NBA Chairman added.
For an Abuja-based female lawyer, Vivian Igbor, although the EFCC’s directive appears spurred by zeal to promote the naira, it “does not hold any water.”
She said: “The EFCC’s warning to lawyers to stop charging clients in foreign currency has two sides. There is an advantage in terms of protecting local content, making us charge more in naira as a way of creating value for the naira.
“But at the same time, there is a second leg to it. The disadvantage is that you cannot tell a lawyer how to charge. For instance, if you have a foreign client who is in London, you have to charge based on international standards.
“If you check the cost of litigation in Nigeria, it is far cheaper than in America. So what the EFCC is saying won’t really hold water, because I cannot be working for a client in America while you want me to charge in naira. Where would he get the naira from?
“The best thing you can do is pay in dollars — that’s why we have dollar accounts. You cannot say a lawyer should not charge in dollars if the banks are also allowing the opening of domiciliary accounts. It’s a two-way thing,” Igbor, Esq., added.
Also weighing in on the issue, a senior member of the Bar, Chief Chukwuma Nwachukwu, said the EFCC’s action raised a serious legal question, insisting the agency “overstretched it a bit.”
He said: “There can be no offence unless it is specifically defined in a written law and the punishment is equally provided for.
“It is pertinent to note that even the Federal Government itself, through the NNPC and its affiliate agencies, customarily makes procurement payments in the oil and gas industry partly in naira and also in dollars. This is not a hidden fact!” Chief Nwachukwu added.
According to him, “what may constitute an offence in reality is refusing payment in naira for a job done or services provided in Nigeria.”
The newly inaugurated national leadership of the NBA had yet to formally respond to EFCC’s bid to stop lawyers from charging legal fees in foreign currency.

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