By The Supreme Court of Nigeria has overturned a 2014 Federal High Court judgment that awarded over N22 trillion against Union Bank and other parties over a longstanding debt dispute. The decision marks the end of a legal battle that had dragged on for more than 25 years.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Stephen Jonah Adah criticized both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal for failing to follow established judicial precedents. He lamented that this oversight turned what should have been a straightforward case into prolonged litigation.
The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected to ease the concerns of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other regulators, who had been worried about the potential impact of the massive judgment on Union Bank’s viability, along with the concerns of its auditors and rating agencies.
The case began when Visana Nigeria Limited sued Union Bank over a disputed debt, claiming that Metalloplastica Nigeria Limited, a borrower from Union Bank, owed it over $7.6 million as of December 1993. Visana alleged that the debt carried compound interest of 2.5 per cent monthly and challenged the validity of a Debenture agreement related to the matter.
In 2014, a Federal High Court ordered Union Bank to pay Visana $7.6 million with compounded interest, leading to a potential liability of over N22 trillion. The Court of Appeal later reduced the judgment amount significantly, but Union Bank remained dissatisfied and pursued the matter to the Supreme Court.
Their persistence paid off when the apex court ruled in Union Bank’s favor on April 25, 2025, finally putting to rest decades of legal uncertainty and reinforcing the importance of strict adherence to judicial precedents in Nigeria’s legal system.
