The United Kingdom Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID), upholding earlier rulings that ordered the company to pay Nigeria’s legal costs in sterling (GBP) rather than naira.
In a judgment delivered by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom — Case ID: UKSC/2024/0117 (Court Procedure) — in Process & Industrial Developments Limited (Appellant) v The Federal Republic of Nigeria (Respondent), the court affirmed that the Commercial Court and Court of Appeal acted correctly in exercising their discretion to award costs in the currency in which Nigeria had incurred and paid its legal expenses.
The case started from Nigeria’s successful bid to set aside two arbitration awards initially granted in P&ID’s favour, worth over $11 billion. Nigeria had spent about £44.2 million on legal fees during an eight-week trial before Justice Knowles, paying all invoices in sterling.
Delivering the unanimous judgment on Tuesday, October 22, 2025, Lord Hodge and Lady Simler, with whom Lord Reed, Lord Stephens, and Lord Richards agreed, affirmed that the Commercial Court and Court of Appeal acted correctly in exercising their discretion to award costs in the currency in which Nigeria had incurred and paid its legal expenses.
P&ID argued that because of the sharp depreciation of the naira since 2023, ordering costs in sterling would give Nigeria a “substantial windfall,” noting that the same amount once equalled N25 billion but is now about N95 billion.
Rejecting this claim, the Supreme Court held that costs are not compensatory in the same way as damages in tort or contract but are instead a discretionary contribution toward a party’s legal liabilities.
“An order for costs is not intended to provide compensation for loss,” the court stated, adding that “nobody has an entitlement to an award of costs as of right.”
The justices also warned against “disproportionate and expensive satellite litigation” that could arise if courts were to inquire into how litigants funded their legal fees or in which currency they raised funds.
