The Federal Government has been unable to provide sufficient evidence to federal auditors showing that the sum of N33.75bn in cash transfers meant for more than 3.29 million listed vulnerable households got genuine beneficiaries, the Auditor-General for the Federation has said.
The revelation was made available in the Auditor-General for the Federation’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government, obtained by Saturday PUNCH on Friday.
The report reviewed transactions at the National Cash Transfer Office in Abuja for the 2023 financial year and raised eight audit queries involving billions of naira, while identifying weaknesses in the office’s internal control system.
The report was transmitted to the National Assembly by the Auditor-General for the Federation, Shaakaa Kanyitor Chira, who has continued to flag financial irregularities and internal control weaknesses across federal ministries, departments and agencies without any visible corrections.
Recent reports have confirm that the 2024 audit report was transmitted to the National Assembly on July 17, 2026.
According to the report, electronic transfers totalling N33.751bn were made to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries drawn from the National Social Register and enrolled on the National Beneficiary Register across 35 states in 2023.
However, the auditors said the paid vouchers did not contain the full details of the beneficiaries, while the Remita statement required to reconcile those who received payments with persons listed on the NSR and NBR was not presented for examination.
The report said: “Electronic transfers amounting to N33,751,080,000.00 were made to 3,295,207 households/beneficiaries that have been mined to the NSR and enrolled on the NBR in 35 states for the year 2023.
“The paid vouchers for the payments above did not contain the full details of the beneficiaries.
“REMITA statement showing record of the beneficiaries paid as against those listed on the NSR and NBR was not presented for audit. This hindered the authentication of the payments and made it difficult to ascertain whether the beneficiaries who received the funds were genuine.”
It added that attempts by the auditors to obtain the payment records were unsuccessful.
“All efforts to obtain access to the REMITA statement were obstructed and denied by NTCO accounts staff, thereby frustrating the audit process,” the report stated.
The Auditor-General identified possible loss of public funds and payments to ineligible or fictitious persons as risks arising from the transaction.
It recommended that the National Programme Manager account to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly for the N33.75bn and provide evidence that the beneficiaries received the money.
The report also recommended recovery and remittance of the amount to the Treasury if it could not be satisfactorily accounted for.
The Auditor-General further noted that the management of the National Cash Transfer Office failed to respond to the audit query.
Beyond the cash transfers, the audit queried N36.74bn in payments made without prepayment audit.
It said 215 payment vouchers relating to SS, IDA and output-based transactions in December 2023, amounting to N36.744bn, were raised and paid without internal audit checks or prepayment audit.
“None of the paid vouchers were pre-audited or checked by the Internal Audit as required by extant regulations,” the report said.
Instead, the Internal Audit Unit carried out post-payment checks on the vouchers. The auditors identified possible misapplication and diversion of public funds as risks and recommended that the N36.74bn be accounted for before the National Assembly.
In another query, the report said the NTCO made 101 payments totalling N4.616bn from its S&S/IDA Cash Book for various expenditures but failed to present the paid vouchers for audit examination.
The Auditor-General identified the risks as misapplication and diversion of public funds and recommended that the amount be accounted for or recovered and remitted to the Treasury.
The audit also raised concerns over N350.18m in unsubstantiated funds disbursed to state coordinators.
According to the report, 32 payments totalling N3.09bn were made to various states for the enrolment of unbanked beneficiaries. Documents covering N2.74bn disbursed to 34 states were made available for examination, leaving N350.18m unaccounted for.
The auditors further found that the vouchers presented were vague and did not specify how the funds were utilised.
Supporting documents, including beneficiary lists, photographs of activities, signed attendance registers, enrolment reports and acknowledgements from individuals who received payments, were also not attached to the vouchers.
The Auditor-General recommended that the N350.18m be recovered and remitted to the Treasury if it remained unaccounted for.
Another N393.71m in unused enrolment funds returned by nine State Cash Transfer Units also came under scrutiny.
The NTCO told the auditors that the states were unable to conduct enrolment exercises because of insecurity, disasters and other factors, and consequently returned the money to the Treasury in 2023.
However, the audit said the NTCO did not provide documents showing that the N393.71m was credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“No documents were presented by NCTO to confirm that the amount refunded… was credited into the CRF,” the report said, adding that Remita inflow statements and IRR pay slips were not provided.
It also said evidence that the affected states subsequently carried out the enrolment exercises was not presented.
The report further queried a N280.42m mobilisation payment to Payment Service Providers engaged to provide a payment platform for transferring cash to beneficiaries.
The money, representing a 30 per cent advance payment, was paid without an Advance Payment Guarantee, according to the audit.
The auditors also found no evidence that due process was followed in selecting the service providers, saying their files contained no pre-qualification documents, bidding records or technical and financial evaluations.
The report identified payment for jobs not done and diversion of funds as possible risks and recommended recovery of the N280.42m.
Similarly, the audit found that store items valued at N89.51m purchased and paid for by the NTCO were not entered in its store ledger.
No Store Receipt Vouchers or Store Issue Vouchers were attached to the relevant paid vouchers, while the office had not updated its store ledger since 2020.
In another finding, N17.42m spent on diesel was granted to staff as cash advances instead of being subjected to contract awards, despite exceeding the N200,000 procurement threshold.
The auditors said the items purchased could neither be sighted nor traced to the stores.
The report estimated that the procurement method resulted in N2.18m in foregone Value Added Tax and Withholding Tax revenue to the government.
For all eight issues, the audit report noted that the management of the National Cash Transfer Office failed to respond to queries.
The findings come against the backdrop of the Federal Government’s continued reliance on external financing to fund its social intervention programme.
PUNCH recently reported that Nigeria took an additional $208.29m from the World Bank under the $800m National Social Safety Net Programme-Scale Up, bringing total disbursements under the facility to about $744.61m as the Federal Government continues to finance its cash transfer programme for poor and vulnerable households.
The drawdown raised cumulative disbursements under the programme to approximately $744.61m, representing about 93.1 per cent of the $800m facility approved by the World Bank in December 2021.
The facility, financed through the International Development Association, was created to expand Nigeria’s social safety net system and provide cash transfers to poor and vulnerable households.
The loan later became one of the major funding sources for the Federal Government’s social intervention programme following the removal of petrol subsidy in May 2023, with the Bola Tinubu administration positioning it as part of measures to cushion the impact of rising living costs on vulnerable Nigerians.
Originally, the programme was structured to deliver N5,000 monthly to targeted households. However, following policy changes introduced by the Bola Tinubu administration, the payment was revised to N25,000 monthly for three months, aimed at reaching 15 million households across the country.
Despite receiving World Bank approval since December 2021, the implementation of the palliative programme suffered a disbursement delay of nearly 17 months.
The delays were largely due to administrative bottlenecks, political transitions and subsequent scandals that rocked the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the supervising agency.
In December 2023, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) uncovered an alleged N37.1bn fraud within the ministry under former Minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq.
Investigations have revealed that funds meant for social interventions were allegedly laundered through contractors and other third parties. Umar-Farouq was invited for questioning by the EFCC and detained in January 2024.
Her successor, Dr Betta Edu, was also implicated after reports surfaced that she authorised the transfer of N585m into a private account for the purpose of paying vulnerable groups.
The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGoF) rejected the transaction on the grounds that it violated public financial regulations.
Following these revelations, President Bola Tinubu suspended Edu in January 2024 and ordered a comprehensive investigation into the ministry’s financial dealings.
The EFCC confirmed the recovery of about N32.7bn and $445,000 linked to the alleged frauds.
Halima Shehu, who served as the National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), was also arrested after allegedly moving N44 billion from NSIPA accounts to several suspicious destinations.
In light of these developments, President Tinubu appointed the immediate past Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to head a special investigative panel tasked with reviewing and restructuring the architecture of Nigeria’s social investment programmes.
The panel’s mandate was to ensure that future interventions are managed transparently and efficiently, with an emphasis on accountability.
The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, also partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to enforce mandatory registration of beneficiaries with Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) and National Identity Numbers (NIN) to tighten controls over disbursement.
Earlier in March this year, the current Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr. Bernard Doro, said that about 9.2 million Nigerians had benefited from the Federal Government’s Household Prosperity and Empowerment Cash Transfer Programme (FGHPECTP), with approximately N688 billion disbursed within two years.
In 2025, the World Bank faulted the Federal Government’s conditional cash transfer programme, stating that the initiative failed to reach millions of Nigerians in need of urgent economic relief, as only 37 per cent of the targeted households benefited from the scheme.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar recently challenged President Bola Tinubu’s administration to reconcile conflicting figures on the number of households reached under its expanded cash-transfer programme.
Atiku called on the Federal Government to publish detailed records of the payments, including verified beneficiary households, payment tranches, state-by-state distribution figures, failed transactions and reversals, according to a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu. (SATURDAY PUNCH)
