WorldStage– Nigeria’s transparency framework faces fresh scrutiny as the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF) flagged ₦33.75 billion in electronic cash transfers distributed during the 2023 financial year.
The AGF’s office questioned the documentation supporting the ₦33.751 billion in cash transfers reportedly made to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states during the 2023 financial year, from January 1 to December 31.
The finding is contained in the Auditor-General’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in federal ministries, departments and agencies, submitted to the National Assembly on July 17, 2026.
The transfers occurred during the administrations of former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu.
Buhari left office on May 29, 2023, when Tinubu was sworn in, meaning the period under review spans both administrations.
The funds, meant to relieve the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, were reportedly sent to 3,295,207 households across 35 states.
However, federal auditors revealed they cannot verify if the money actually reached genuine beneficiaries due to missing financial records.
The startling disclosure is detailed in the Auditor-General’s latest Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
According to the report, transactions handled by the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) in Abuja spanned a transitional political period covering both the outgoing Muhammadu Buhari administration and the early months of President Bola Tinubu’s presidency.
The audit uncovered severe flaws in the internal controls of the NCTO. Investigators noted that available payment vouchers lacked basic, comprehensive recipient information necessary for independent verification.
Specifically, the agency failed to provide a Remita payment statement.
Without this digitized transaction ledger, auditors could not cross-reference actual bank payouts with citizens listed on the National Social Register (NSR) or the National Beneficiary Register (NBR).
Adding gravity to the findings, the report explicitly states that efforts by the audit team to access the Remita records were “obstructed and denied” by the accounts staff at the NCTO.
The Auditor-General warned that such a lack of transparency exposes massive volumes of public funds to diversion and risks paying ghost or ineligible recipients.
The report raised eight total financial queries against the NCTO, including an additional ₦36.74 billion disbursed via vouchers that bypassed mandatory pre-payment audits.
In response to the irregularities, the Auditor-General recommended that the National Programme Manager, Abdullahi Imam, be summoned to present concrete evidence of distribution to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly.
Should the agency fail to satisfactorily account for the ₦33.75 billion, the report dictates that the entire sum must be recovered and remitted back into the federal treasury.
The NCTO has since pushed back, claiming that electronic data trails were shared with auditors via email and that the funds moved strictly within verified payment structures.
Nevertheless, civil society groups and opposition leaders have cited the audit as a damning indictment of the state’s social safety programs, demanding a swift and absolute forensic investigation.
