The National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) reported paying N33.75 billion to 3.29 million households and beneficiaries throughout 35 states in 2023 however failed to present full data figuring out the recipients.
The company’s accounts workers additionally denied auditors entry to financial institution statements wanted to confirm the funds, in accordance to evaluation of the Auditor General of the Federation’s newest report by the UDEME undertaking of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
The discovering is one of eight audit queries towards the NCTO within the auditor common’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in MDAs, protecting the interval from 1 January to 31 December 2023.
The eight queries complete N76.24 billion.
NCTO didn’t reply to some of the audit queries, and within the circumstances they responded to, the auditor discovered their response to be unsatisfactory.
The auditor common consequently mentioned the findings remained legitimate till the fee applied the suggestions.
The NCTO runs the conditional money switch element of the National Social Safety Nets Project, a World Bank-financed programme that gives funds to poor households recognized on the National Social Register.
The workplace operates beneath the National Social Investment Programme Agency, which studies to the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction. The transfers occurred beneath former Ministers Sadiya Farouk (beneath the Muhammadu Buhari presidency) and Betta Edu (beneath the Bola Tinubu presidency), who headed the ministry at totally different occasions in 2023.
The programme’s operations got here beneath scrutiny in January 2024 when President Bola Tinubu suspended the company’s chief govt, Halima Shehu, over alleged monetary misappropriation. Ms Shehu had beforehand served as nationwide coordinator of the conditional money switch programme.
Ten days later, Mr Tinubu suspended all 4 programmes run by the company for an preliminary six weeks, citing “operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the programme beneficiaries”.
Payments with out proof of receipt
Paragraph 613 of the Financial Regulations 2009 requires funds to be made solely to the individuals named in fee vouchers or their correctly authorised representatives. Paragraph 603(i) additionally requires vouchers to comprise full particulars of the providers supplied to allow them to be checked with out reference to different paperwork.
The NCTO reported making digital transfers totalling N33.75 billion to 3.2 million households and beneficiaries throughout 35 states in 2023. However, the fee vouchers didn’t comprise full particulars of the beneficiaries, the audit report mentioned.
The workplace additionally failed to current the Remita assertion that will have enabled auditors to examine the funds with the beneficiaries listed on the National Social Register and set up who truly obtained the funds.
The auditors mentioned the lacking assertion prevented them from authenticating the funds and figuring out whether or not the recipients have been real beneficiaries.
“All efforts to obtain access to the REMITA statement were obstructed and denied by NCTO accounts staff, thereby frustrating the audit process,” the auditor common mentioned.
He warned that the failure to confirm the funds uncovered public funds to the chance of loss and raised the chance that ineligible or fictitious individuals had obtained the cash.
The auditor common really useful that the National Programme Manager, Abdullahi Imam, be required to account for the N33.75 billion and recuperate and remit the quantity to the Treasury. He additionally directed that proof exhibiting that the beneficiaries obtained the funds be submitted to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly.
Failure to comply might appeal to sanctions beneath paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations, the report mentioned.
N36.7 billion paid with out prepayment audit
In one other question, the report recognized 215 fee vouchers totalling N36.74 billion for “SS, IDA & output base” transactions in December 2023 that have been paid with out inner audit checks or prepayment audits.
Paragraph 1705 of the Financial Regulations requires the pinnacle of inner audit in each ministry and company to “ensure that a 100 per cent prepayment audit of all checked and passed vouchers is carried out.”
None of the 215 vouchers underwent the required checks earlier than fee. Instead, the Internal Audit Unit examined them after the funds had been made, opposite to the rules, the auditors discovered.
The report famous that the World Bank’s November 2021 Project Appraisal Document for the programme’s scale-up supplied for the Internal Audit Unit to conduct compliance and operational audits with out adopting a prepayment audit system.
The auditor common nonetheless mentioned the observe contravened Nigeria’s Financial Regulations. He really useful that the N36.74 billion be absolutely accounted for and recovered, with these accountable sanctioned for gross misconduct beneath paragraph 3129 of the rules.
N4.6 billion in funds with out vouchers
The auditors additionally discovered that the NCTO made 101 funds totalling ₦4.62 billion from the “S&S/IDA Cash Book,” with out presenting the corresponding fee vouchers for examination.
The absence of the vouchers prevented the auditors from verifying the funds and the expenditures they have been meant to cowl.
The report mentioned this breached Section 85(2) of the Constitution, which gives for the auditor common’s entry to public account data. It additionally contravened paragraph 601 of the Financial Regulations, which states that “under no circumstances shall a cheque be raised or cash paid for services for which a voucher has not been raised.”
The auditors warned that the lacking data uncovered public funds to misapplication and diversion. They really useful that the whole N4.62 billion be recovered from the NCTO.
Money despatched to states for enrolment
The auditors additional recognized 32 funds totalling N3.09 billion from the “NASSP SCALE-UP Cash Book” to states for the enrolment of unbanked, poor and susceptible households.
Although the NCTO introduced paperwork protecting N2.74 billion disbursed to 34 states, N350.18 million remained unaccounted for, in accordance to the report.
The auditors additionally faulted the supporting vouchers, describing them as imprecise and insufficient to set up how the funds have been used or which actions they financed.
The data lacked beneficiary lists, pictures of enrolment workouts, signed attendance registers, exercise studies and the names of individuals who obtained funds throughout the workouts, the report mentioned.
In a separate question, the auditors examined N393.71 million that 9 State Cash Transfer Units reportedly returned to the Treasury in 2023 after failing to conduct enrolment workouts.
The NCTO attributed the failure to “insecurity, disasters, and other factors”.
However, the workplace didn’t present Remita influx statements or fee slips exhibiting that the refunds had been credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. It additionally failed to present proof that the affected states subsequently enrolled the meant beneficiaries.
N280m mobilisation paid with out ensures
The NCTO paid N280.42 million to fee service suppliers as a 30 per cent advance for implementing a “last-mile solution” for beneficiaries, the report mentioned.
The funds have been made with out advance fee ensures, opposite to Section 71 of the Finance Act 2020, which requires such ensures for mobilisation charges.
The auditors additionally discovered no proof that the suppliers have been chosen by way of due course of. Their contract information lacked prequalification paperwork, bidding data and technical and monetary evaluations to justify the alternatives and funds.
Auditor-General recommends restoration of funds
Across the eight queries, the Auditor-General known as for the NCTO’s National Programme Manager to account for the funds in query, recuperate and remit the quantities due to the Treasury, and submit proof of the remittances to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.
The report cites paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations, which supplies an officer liable for an irregular fee 21 days to clarify the transaction earlier than the quantity could also be recovered personally from the officer and the officer faraway from the schedule.
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It additionally cites paragraph 3129, which gives for sanctions for gross misconduct.
In its broader evaluation, the report ranked the NCTO first amongst federal businesses flagged for making funds with out supporting paperwork, failing to conduct prepayment audits and failing to current paid vouchers for examination.
In March 2026, Mr Imam, the NCTO’s programme supervisor, mentioned the money switch initiative had elevated its goal from 10.4 million to 15 million beneficiaries.
SERAP sues Nigerian govt
Worried concerning the auditor common’s report, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) sued the federal authorities on the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice over the alleged diversion, irregular expenditure and failure to account for ₦78.8 billion allotted to cash-transfer and social-protection programmes.
In the go well with, filed final week, SERAP is looking for an order compelling the federal government to account for the funds and guarantee correct monetary oversight of programmes meant to assist susceptible households.
The go well with follows considerations raised by SERAP over findings involving the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) and the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO).
The group has known as for investigations into ₦76.24 billion in questionable and unaccounted-for expenditure at NCTO and ₦2.55 billion at NASSCO, in addition to the restoration of any funds discovered to have been misappropriated.
“The failure to investigate the ₦78.8 billion cash-transfer scandal, account for the questioned funds and recover any unlawfully spent amounts violates Nigeria’s obligations to protect the human rights of vulnerable households.”
In the go well with, SERAP can also be arguing that “the failure to account for substantial public funds allocated for social protection, and to investigate and remedy deficiencies, undermines the socio-economic rights of millions of affected Nigerians.”
In September, SERAP had urged President Bola Tinubu to direct the related businesses to account for the funds, together with ₦33.751 billion in 2023 money transfers for which it mentioned beneficiary data and fee documentation ought to be printed.
It additionally known as for explanations for funds made with out prepayment audits, unsupported expenditure and different questionable transactions.
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