Court orders company to drop 'Naira' from its name

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, issued an order permanently restraining a company, eNaira Payment Solutions Ltd, from parading itself as the registered proprietor of the trademark, “eNaira.”

In his judgement, Judge James Omotosho also granted a counter-claim of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and awarded N10 million against the company.

Mr Omotosho ordered eNaira Payment Solutions Ltd to immediately change its name to another distinct name that does not use the word “Naira,” the Nigerian currency.

The judge agreed with the defendants’ arguments that though the company had been incorporated since 2004, it had a misleading name.

He held that “the name chosen by the plaintiff on its incorporation is in the circumstances unregistrable due to the misleading nature of the name which suggests government’s patronage.”