The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF) says there is insufficient evidence that N33.75 billion in cash transfers meant for 3.29 million vulnerable households in 2023 reached genuine beneficiaries.
The finding is contained in OAuGF’s 2024 annual report on non-compliance and internal control weaknesses across federal ministries, departments and agencies, submitted to the clerk of the National Assembly on July 17, 2026. The report reviewed transactions at the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) in Abuja for the 2023 financial year, flagging eight audit queries and identifying weaknesses in the office’s internal control system.
A section on page 90, titled “Cash Transfers from NCTO to Beneficiaries Without Evidence of Receipt (N33,751,080,000.00),” states that electronic transfers totalling that amount were made to 3,295,207 households drawn from the National Social Register and enrolled on the National Beneficiary Register across 35 states.
Auditors said payment vouchers for the transfers lacked full beneficiary details, and that a REMITA statement showing who was actually paid, matched against the official registers, was never presented for audit — hindering efforts to authenticate the payments or confirm the recipients were genuine. The report further states that NCTO accounts staff obstructed and denied all efforts to access the REMITA statement, frustrating the audit process.
Auditors attributed the anomalies to weaknesses in NCTO’s internal controls, warning of risks including loss of public funds and payments to ineligible or fictitious persons. Since management did not respond to the query, the findings remain valid pending implementation of the auditors’ recommendations.
Among these, auditors recommended that the manager overseeing the programme account for the N33.75 billion before the National Assembly’s public accounts committees and provide evidence the funds reached beneficiaries. Where funds cannot be accounted for, they should be recovered and remitted to the treasury, with proof of receipt forwarded to the committee. Failing that, sanctions under paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations 2009 should apply.
The auditors said the findings breach the Financial Regulations 2009, which require payments to go only to persons named in vouchers or their authorised representatives. They cited paragraph 613, requiring paying officers to verify a recipient’s authorisation, and paragraph 603(i), requiring vouchers to carry full particulars of each service supported by verifiable documentation.
