Nigeria’s Auditor-General for the Federation has raised concerns over the inability of the Federal Government to provide sufficient records confirming that ₦33.75 billion in cash transfers made to more than 3.29 million households and beneficiaries in 2023 reached genuine recipients.
The finding is contained 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.
The audit examined transactions of the National Cash Transfer Office (NTCO), Abuja, for the 2023 financial year and raised eight separate queries involving billions of naira, highlighting significant weaknesses in the office’s financial controls and documentation.
According to the report, electronic transfers amounting to ₦33,751,080,000 were made to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries drawn from the National Social Register (NSR) and enrolled on the National Beneficiary Register (NBR) across 35 states.
However, auditors said the documents supplied by the National Cash Transfer Office were insufficient to establish that the money was paid to legitimate beneficiaries.
The Auditor-General said the payment vouchers examined did not contain complete beneficiary information. The report also stated that the Remita statement required to reconcile the people who actually received the funds with those listed on the NSR and NBR was not made available for audit.
The absence of the records, according to the auditors, prevented them from authenticating the payments and determining whether the individuals who received the money were genuine beneficiaries.
The report noted that efforts by the auditors to obtain the relevant payment records were unsuccessful, alleging that attempts to access the Remita statement were obstructed by accounts staff of the National Cash Transfer Office.
The auditors consequently identified the possibility of loss of public funds and payments to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries as risks associated with the transaction.
They recommended that the National Programme Manager appear before the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly to account for the ₦33.75 billion and provide evidence showing that the intended beneficiaries received the funds.
Where the money cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, the Auditor-General recommended that it be recovered and remitted to the Treasury. The report also noted that the management of the National Cash Transfer Office did not respond to the audit query.
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The auditors raised another major concern over ₦36.744 billion in payments made without the required internal audit or prepayment checks. The amount covered 215 payment vouchers relating to social support, intervention and development assistance transactions in December 2023.
According to the audit report, none of the vouchers had undergone the required pre-audit process before payment was made. Instead, the Internal Audit Unit conducted checks after the payments had already been made.
The auditors identified possible misapplication and diversion of public funds as risks and recommended that the entire ₦36.74 billion be properly accounted for before the National Assembly.
The NTCO also came under scrutiny over 101 payments totalling ₦4.616 billion made from its S&S/IDA Cash Book for various expenditures. The office failed to provide the corresponding paid vouchers for examination.
The Auditor-General again identified potential misapplication and diversion of public funds and recommended that the money be accounted for or recovered and returned to the Treasury where it could not be satisfactorily justified.
The audit further identified ₦350.18 million in funds disbursed to state coordinators for the enrolment of unbanked beneficiaries that could not be fully accounted for. The report said the NTCO made 32 payments totalling ₦3.09 billion to various states for the exercise.
Documents covering approximately ₦2.74 billion disbursed to 34 states were made available to the auditors, leaving ₦350.18 million without sufficient supporting documentation.
The vouchers that were presented were also described as vague, with no adequate explanation of how the funds were spent.
Auditors said supporting records such as beneficiary lists, photographs of enrolment activities, signed attendance registers, enrolment reports and acknowledgements from people who received payments were not attached to the vouchers.
The Auditor-General recommended that the ₦350.18 million be recovered and paid into the Treasury if it remained unaccounted for.
Another ₦393.71 million in unused enrolment funds returned by nine State Cash Transfer Units was also queried.
The NTCO explained that the affected states could not carry out enrolment exercises because of insecurity, disasters and other circumstances and had consequently returned the money to the Treasury in 2023.
However, auditors said the office failed to provide documentation proving that the returned funds had actually been credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The NTCO also did not present the relevant Remita inflow statements and Inland Revenue Receipt pay slips required to substantiate the transaction. Evidence that the affected states subsequently carried out the planned enrolment exercises was also not provided.
The audit raised concerns about a further ₦280.42 million mobilisation payment made to Payment Service Providers engaged to provide a platform for transferring cash to beneficiaries. The payment represented a 30 per cent advance, but auditors said it was made without an Advance Payment Guarantee.
They also found no evidence that due process had been followed in the selection of the service providers. According to the report, the relevant files did not contain pre-qualification documents, bidding records or technical and financial evaluation reports.
The auditors identified the risk of payment for jobs not performed and possible diversion of funds, recommending recovery of the ₦280.42 million.
The National Cash Transfer Office was also faulted over store items valued at ₦89.51 million that had been purchased and paid for but were not entered into its store ledger. The relevant payment vouchers did not have Store Receipt Vouchers or Store Issue Vouchers attached to them.
Auditors further observed that the office’s store ledger had not been updated since 2020, raising concerns over the ability to properly track government property and supplies. The audit also questioned ₦17.42 million spent on diesel.
Rather than being processed through contract awards, the money was given to staff as cash advances despite the expenditure exceeding the applicable ₦200,000 procurement threshold. The auditors said the items purchased could neither be sighted nor traced to the stores.
They further estimated that the procurement approach resulted in approximately ₦2.18 million in foregone Value Added Tax and Withholding Tax revenue to the government. Across all eight audit issues, the Auditor-General noted that the management of the National Cash Transfer Office failed to respond to the queries raised by the auditors.
The audit findings come as the Federal Government continues to expand its social protection and cash-transfer programmes for poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
Nigeria recently drew an additional $208.29 million from the World Bank under the $800 million National Social Safety Net Programme-Scale Up, taking cumulative disbursements under the facility to approximately $744.61 million, or about 93.1 per cent of the approved facility.
The programme, financed through the World Bank’s International Development Association, was designed to strengthen Nigeria’s social safety-net system and provide financial support to vulnerable households.
It became a major source of funding for the Federal Government’s social intervention programme following the removal of the petrol subsidy in May 2023, with the administration of President Bola Tinubu presenting cash transfers as part of measures to cushion vulnerable Nigerians against rising living costs.
The programme was initially structured to provide ₦5,000 monthly to targeted households. Under subsequent policy changes, the payment was revised to ₦25,000 monthly for three months, with a target of reaching 15 million households.
However, implementation was delayed for almost 17 months despite the World Bank’s approval of the facility in December 2021.
Administrative bottlenecks, political transitions and controversies surrounding the former Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation contributed to the delays.
The latest audit findings come against the backdrop of previous financial controversies involving Nigeria’s social investment programmes.
In December 2023, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) uncovered an alleged ₦37.1 billion fraud involving the former Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation under former Minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq. The investigation centred on allegations that funds meant for social interventions were moved through contractors and other third parties.
Umar-Farouq was invited for questioning and detained by the EFCC in January 2024. Her successor, Dr. Betta Edu, also became embroiled in a separate controversy after reports emerged that she had authorised the transfer of ₦585 million into a private account for the payment of vulnerable groups.
The Accountant-General of the Federation rejected the transaction, citing public financial regulations.
President Tinubu subsequently suspended Edu in January 2024 and ordered a comprehensive investigation into the ministry’s financial activities.
The EFCC later confirmed the recovery of approximately ₦32.7 billion and $445,000 linked to the alleged fraud cases.
Former National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, Halima Shehu, was also arrested following allegations that she moved ₦44 billion from NSIPA accounts to several suspicious destinations.
Against this background, President Tinubu appointed then Minister of Finance Wale Edun to lead a special investigative panel tasked with reviewing and restructuring Nigeria’s social investment programme architecture.
The panel was mandated to strengthen transparency, accountability and efficiency in the management of future interventions.
The Federal Government also introduced tighter beneficiary verification measures, working with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Identity Management Commission to require beneficiaries to register with Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) and National Identification Numbers (NINs).
Despite the controversies and audit concerns, the Federal Government has maintained that millions of Nigerians have benefited from its expanded cash-transfer programmes.
In March this year, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr. Bernard Doro, said approximately 9.2 million Nigerians had benefited from the government’s Household Prosperity and Empowerment Cash Transfer Programme, with about ₦688 billion disbursed over two years.
However, a 2025 World Bank assessment reportedly found that the conditional cash-transfer programme had not reached millions of Nigerians in need, with only 37 per cent of targeted households benefiting from the scheme.
The latest Auditor-General’s report therefore adds another layer to questions surrounding the verification, documentation and accountability of Nigeria’s social-intervention spending.
The audit findings also come amid renewed political scrutiny of the Federal Government’s cash-transfer figures.
Former Vice President and ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar recently challenged the Tinubu administration to reconcile what he described as conflicting figures concerning the number of households reached under its expanded cash-transfer programme.
Through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku called on the government to publish detailed payment records showing verified beneficiary households, payment tranches, state-by-state disbursements, failed transactions and reversals.
The demand comes as the Auditor-General’s report raises questions over the availability of precisely the type of documentation required to verify whether billions of naira in cash transfers reached their intended recipients.
The audit report does not establish that the entire ₦33.75 billion was stolen or that the beneficiaries were fictitious. Rather, it states that the records presented to auditors were inadequate to authenticate the payments and determine whether the recipients were genuine.
The Auditor-General’s recommendations now place responsibility on the National Cash Transfer Office to provide evidence supporting the disbursements or, where the funds cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, recover and remit the money to the Treasury.
