The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has warned Nigerian lawyers against charging clients in foreign currencies, describing the practice as illegal and unethical.
Bawa Kaltungo, acting director of the EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, said the commission was already handling two cases involving lawyers accused of demanding payment from clients in foreign currencies.
Kaltungo issued the warning on September 11 during a meeting with a delegation from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos task force on illegal practice of law, led by its head, Moshood Abiola.
The EFCC official said the commission would prosecute lawyers found to have violated the rules.
“We usually don’t want to have issues with members of the NBA. However, some lawyers are pushing us,” Kaltungo said.
“Any lawyer we find culpable of charging clients in foreign currencies will be prosecuted.”
EFCC also warns against name-dropping
The commission’s concern extends beyond the currency in which lawyers demand payment.
Kaltungo accused some practitioners of invoking the EFCC’s name to justify unusually high charges to clients.
While acknowledging that lawyers are entitled to determine their professional fees, he said practitioners should not tell clients that payments demanded from them are required by the anti-graft agency when they are not.
“Lawyers should stop name-dropping the EFCC to overcharge their clients,” he said.
The warning places a second issue alongside foreign-currency billing: the use of government agencies’ reputations to pressure clients into paying fees they may otherwise question.
NBA seeks stronger enforcement
The NBA task force said it wants closer cooperation with the EFCC to deal with lawyers accused of professional misconduct and illegal practice.
Abiola pointed to the recent prosecution and conviction of a person who had been practising law without being a genuine lawyer as an example of the kind of enforcement the task force wants to see more frequently.
He said the task force was handling several other complaints involving alleged malpractice and wanted such cases to be pursued through the appropriate legal channels.
The collaboration could give the NBA another enforcement route in cases where alleged misconduct goes beyond professional discipline and potentially amounts to a criminal offence.
EFCC asks NBA to name sanctioned lawyers
Orhieoghene Adewunmi, assistant commander in the EFCC’s Department of Legal and Prosecution, also urged the NBA to make public the identities of lawyers found culpable of unethical conduct.
According to Adewunmi, publishing the names would help members of the public distinguish practitioners who have been sanctioned for professional misconduct and avoid engaging them.
The EFCC’s intervention therefore touches on both sides of the legal-services market: how lawyers charge clients and how clients can identify practitioners who have faced disciplinary action.
For the NBA, the challenge is not only policing the profession but ensuring that disciplinary outcomes are visible enough to influence public behaviour.
For clients, the warning is a reminder that a demand for payment in dollars or another foreign currency — particularly when presented as an EFCC requirement — should not automatically be accepted as an official obligation.
The EFCC has made clear that lawyers who cross that line could face consequences beyond professional discipline.
