UK Supreme Court orders P&ID to pay Nigeria’s legal costs in pounds, rejects naira appeal

In a final legal blow to Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has ruled that the company must reimburse Nigeria’s legal costs in British pounds sterling, not the Nigerian naira.

This decision secures a full indemnity for the millions spent by Nigeria to overturn a fraudulent $11 billion arbitration award.

The judgment, delivered on October 22, 2025, by a unanimous panel led by Lord Reed, upheld previous rulings from the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal.

The core legal principle affirmed was that costs should be paid in the currency in which they were originally incurred.

The case stems from Nigeria’s successful challenge to massive arbitral awards granted to P&ID. In 2023, a UK Commercial Court nullified the awards, declaring they had been “procured by fraud.”

In the course of this legal battle, Nigeria paid its legal team £44.2 million, covering 116 invoices billed in sterling between 2019 and 2024.

P&ID had argued that paying the costs in pounds would grant Nigeria an unfair “windfall” due to the significant depreciation of the naira since 2023. The Supreme Court firmly rejected this argument.

In their joint judgment, Lords Hodge and Simler clarified that a costs order “is not intended to compensate for loss” but is a statutory indemnity for expenses already paid.

Since Nigeria incurred and paid its legal fees in sterling, the reimbursement must be in the same currency.

The court warned that accepting P&ID’s argument would force courts to investigate how litigants fund their legal battles, leading to “disproportionate and expensive satellite litigation.”

With this ruling, the Supreme Court has dismissed P&ID’s appeal and ordered the company to cover Nigeria’s legal costs for this latest hearing.

This decision represents another significant victory for Nigeria, following the landmark 2023 ruling that threw out the underlying fraudulent award.

About The Author

Dele Fashomi

Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.

Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.

He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.

Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).

He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.

He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.

Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled:  Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.

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