Auditor-General Questions N33.75bn Cash Transfers to 3.29 Million Households

Nigeria’s Auditor-General for the Federation has raised questions over N33.75 billion in federal cash transfers, saying the government could not provide sufficient evidence to auditors that the money actually reached genuine beneficiaries.

The finding is contained in the Auditor-General’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses, which reviewed transactions at the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) for the 2023 financial year.

According to the audit report, electronic transfers totaling N33.751 billion were made to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states. The beneficiaries were drawn from the National Social Register and enrolled on the National Beneficiary Register.

However, auditors said the payment vouchers did not contain complete beneficiary information, while the Remita statement needed to reconcile those who actually received the money with names on the official registers was not made available. As a result, the auditors said they could not authenticate the payments or establish whether the money went to genuine beneficiaries.

The report said efforts to obtain the relevant Remita records were unsuccessful, with accounts staff at the National Cash Transfer Office allegedly obstructing access to the documents. The Auditor-General identified the possibility of payments being made to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries, as well as potential loss of public funds.

The audit recommended that the National Programme Manager provide evidence that the beneficiaries received the funds and account for the N33.75 billion before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committees. If the money cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, the auditors recommended that it be recovered and returned to the Treasury.

The N33.75 billion was not the only transaction questioned in the audit. Auditors also flagged N36.74 billion in payments that were made without the required prepayment audit, while another N4.62 billion in payments lacked supporting vouchers.

An additional N350.18 million disbursed to states for the enrolment of unbanked beneficiaries was also found to be unsupported by adequate documentation. The report said the National Cash Transfer Office failed to respond to the audit queries covering the eight issues identified.

The audit comes amid growing scrutiny of Nigeria’s social intervention programmes, particularly the government’s efforts to provide financial support to vulnerable households.

The latest finding does not by itself establish that N33.75 billion was stolen or diverted. It shows that auditors were unable to verify the payments because critical records were not provided.

The Auditor-General is therefore demanding a clear payment trail showing exactly who received the money and whether those recipients were legitimate beneficiaries.

For a programme designed to support some of Nigeria’s most vulnerable households, the audit has raised fresh questions about transparency, record-keeping and accountability in the management of public funds.