The Auditor-General for the Federation has raised serious questions over ₦33.75 billion recorded as cash transfers to more than 3.29 million vulnerable households after auditors were unable to independently authenticate the payments from records presented by the National Cash Transfer Office.
The finding does not establish that the ₦33.75 billion was stolen, missing or paid to fictitious beneficiaries. Rather, auditors said crucial documentation needed to match the recorded payments with identifiable beneficiaries was not made available for examination.
According to the Auditor-General’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, electronic transfers totalling ₦33,751,080,000 were recorded as having been made to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states during the 2023 financial year.
The beneficiaries were said to have been drawn from the National Social Register and enrolled on the National Beneficiary Register.
Auditors, however, reported that the paid vouchers supporting the transactions did not contain complete details of the beneficiaries.
More significantly, the Remita statement required to compare those who actually received payments with the persons listed on the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register was not presented for audit examination.
The report said the absence of those records prevented auditors from authenticating the payments and determining whether the persons who received the money were genuine beneficiaries of the programme.
It stated that electronic transfers amounting to ₦33.751 billion were made to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries mined from the National Social Register and enrolled on the National Beneficiary Register across 35 states in 2023.
According to the auditors, the paid vouchers did not contain full beneficiary information, while the Remita statement showing payments against those registered on the two beneficiary databases was unavailable.
The audit report went further, stating that attempts to gain access to the Remita records were unsuccessful.
“All efforts to obtain access to the REMITA statement were obstructed and denied by NCTO accounts staff, thereby frustrating the audit process,” the report said.
That finding places the controversy squarely on the question of whether the Federal Government can produce an auditable payment trail linking the ₦33.75 billion recorded as disbursed to the individual households said to have received it.
Without that reconciliation, auditors said they could not determine whether the recorded recipients were genuine.Join Diaspora Networks
The Auditor-General consequently identified possible loss of public funds and payments to ineligible or fictitious persons as risks associated with the transaction.
Those risks were raised as potential consequences of the control weaknesses identified by the audit and should not be read as a finding that either had already occurred.
The report recommended that the National Programme Manager account for the ₦33.75 billion before the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly and provide documentary evidence showing that the intended beneficiaries received the money.
Where satisfactory evidence could not be provided, the Auditor-General recommended recovery of the amount and its remittance to the Treasury.
The report also noted that management of the National Cash Transfer Office did not respond to the audit query.
The ₦33.75 billion finding was only one of several concerns raised over the administration of the cash-transfer programme.
Auditors also questioned hundreds of millions of naira relating to enrolment activities, payments to service providers, returned funds, store purchases and other transactions for which supporting documentation or evidence of compliance with financial regulations was considered inadequate.
One query involved ₦350.18 million arising from funds disbursed to state coordinators for the enrolment of unbanked beneficiaries.
The report said 32 payments amounting to about ₦3.09 billion were made for enrolment activities in different states, but supporting documents covering only about ₦2.74 billion were made available, leaving ₦350.18 million requiring further accounting.
Auditors also complained that some of the vouchers presented were vague and failed to show precisely how the funds were used.
Beneficiary lists, photographs, attendance registers, enrolment reports and acknowledgements from recipients were among the supporting documents auditors said were not attached to the relevant vouchers.
Another ₦393.71 million, said to have been returned by nine State Cash Transfer Units after enrolment exercises could not be conducted because of insecurity, disasters and other challenges, also attracted an audit query.
Although the National Cash Transfer Office said the funds had been returned to the Treasury, auditors said documents confirming that the money had been credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund were not presented for examination.
The audit also questioned a ₦280.42 million mobilisation payment to Payment Service Providers contracted to support the transfer of cash to beneficiaries.
According to the report, the payment represented a 30 per cent advance, but auditors said an Advance Payment Guarantee was not presented and procurement records establishing the process through which the service providers were selected were also unavailable.
Store items valued at about ₦89.51 million were similarly queried after auditors reported that the purchases had not been properly entered into the store ledger.
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The report said Store Receipt Vouchers and Store Issue Vouchers were not attached to the relevant payment records, while the office’s store ledger had not been properly updated.
Auditors also raised questions over ₦17.42 million spent on diesel, saying the purchases were treated as staff cash advances rather than being subjected to the procurement process applicable to expenditure above the relevant threshold.
These findings come at a time when the Federal Government continues to rely heavily on cash transfers as one of its principal tools for cushioning the effect of economic hardship on vulnerable households.
The programme expanded following the removal of petrol subsidy in May 2023, with the Bola Tinubu administration announcing a revised arrangement under which eligible households would receive ₦25,000 monthly for three months.Follow Federal Policy
The intervention has also been supported by financing from the World Bank-backed National Social Safety Net Programme-Scale Up, which was designed to strengthen Nigeria’s social-protection system and expand assistance to poor and vulnerable households.
Questions surrounding the integrity of Nigeria’s social intervention programmes have persisted following previous investigations into the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and agencies operating under it.
Former Humanitarian Affairs Minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq was questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission during investigations into alleged financial irregularities involving social intervention funds.Download Interactive Maps
Her successor, Betta Edu, was suspended by President Bola Tinubu in January 2024 following controversy over a memorandum authorising the transfer of ₦585 million into a private account for payments connected with vulnerable groups.
The Federal Government subsequently announced reforms intended to strengthen beneficiary identification and payment controls, including greater reliance on Bank Verification Numbers, National Identification Numbers and digital payment infrastructure.
The latest Auditor-General finding, however, raises a separate and fundamental accountability question.
The issue is not whether government records show that ₦33.75 billion was transferred. They do.
The unresolved question is whether the Federal Government can produce sufficient documentary evidence connecting those transfers to the 3.29 million beneficiaries it says received the money.
Until that payment trail is available for independent audit, the Auditor-General’s finding leaves one of the country’s major social-intervention expenditures without the level of verification expected for public funds.
For a programme specifically designed to reach Nigeria’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens, the strength of the beneficiary register matters, but an auditable record showing who actually received each payment matters just as much.
