By Chike Ofili
A ₦78.8 billion accountability storm is brewing over the Federal Government’s cash-transfer programme for poor and vulnerable Nigerians, as the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction to explain major audit black holes involving billions of naira reportedly diverted, unaccounted for, or irregularly spent.
SERAP wants President Bola Tinubu to direct the ministry, the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO), and the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO) to provide a full account of the disputed expenditures, including ₦33.751 billion in cash transfers for which auditors reportedly could not establish adequate evidence that the intended beneficiaries received the money.
The organisation based its demand on findings contained in the 2024 Annual Report of the Auditor-General of the Federation, published on August 7, 2026. The audit findings covered various transactions between January 2023 and December 31, 2024.
In a letter dated September 5, 2026, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP said the findings exposed serious gaps in the financial and administrative controls surrounding programmes established to provide assistance to some of Nigeria’s poorest and most vulnerable households.
According to SERAP, the audit queries cover about ₦76.24 billion in questionable and unaccounted-for expenditures at the NCTO and another ₦2.55 billion at NASSCO.
It asked Tinubu to direct the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry and its relevant agencies to open their books and provide the records necessary to establish what happened to the money.
Central to the controversy is ₦33.751 billion reportedly transferred by the NCTO to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states in 2023.
SERAP said the Auditor-General found that the NCTO failed to provide sufficient evidence confirming that the intended beneficiaries actually received the funds.
The organisation said REMITA statements required to authenticate the transactions and establish whether the recipients were genuine and eligible were also not provided to the Auditor-General.
SERAP consequently wants the ministry and NCTO to publish the full records and audit trail of the ₦33.751 billion, including details of payments, verification, authorisations and reconciliation, while explaining why the relevant REMITA records were unavailable to auditors.
It also called for the payments to be reconciled against the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register, with an independent verification of recipients to identify any duplicate, fictitious, deceased, ineligible or otherwise irregular beneficiaries.
“The failure to provide basic payment records and beneficiary information capable of establishing that public funds reached genuine beneficiaries undermines public confidence in the cash-transfer programme and creates a serious risk that funds intended for some of Nigeria’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens may have been lost, misapplied or paid to persons who were not entitled to receive them,” SERAP said.
The audit black holes cited by the organisation extend well beyond the ₦33.751 billion cash transfers.
SERAP said the Auditor-General found that the NCTO made ₦36.744 billion in payments in December 2023 without prepayment audit or internal audit checks required under applicable financial regulations.
Another ₦4.616 billion was reportedly spent on various expenditures without adequate supporting documentation, with the Auditor-General raising concerns that the money may have been diverted.
There were also questions over ₦350.18 million reportedly disbursed to state coordinators for the enrolment of unbanked beneficiaries.
According to SERAP, auditors found inadequate beneficiary lists, acknowledgements and supporting documentation to properly account for the expenditure.
The NCTO was also reported to have paid ₦89.51 million for store items which could not be verified as having been delivered or entered in the store ledger. The Auditor-General reportedly found that the ledger had not been updated since 2020.
Another ₦17.42 million was reportedly advanced in cash to staff for diesel purchases, but the expenditure was said not to have gone through the applicable procurement process, while the items could not be traced to the stores.
The audit further questioned ₦280.42 million allegedly paid as mobilisation and advance payments to Payment Service Providers without Advance Payment Guarantees and without evidence that due process was followed in selecting the providers.
Another ₦393.71 million in unutilised funds disbursed to nine states for beneficiary enrolment activities also came under scrutiny.
Although the NCTO reportedly said the money had been returned to the Treasury, SERAP said the Auditor-General found no evidence establishing that the funds were credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Similar gaps were identified at NASSCO, where ₦2.24 billion was reportedly paid through 158 vouchers without prepayment audit.
SERAP also cited ₦44.55 million reportedly paid for laptops which could not be verified as delivered or entered in the store ledger and ₦19.76 million spent on advertisements without evidence that the publications were made.
Another ₦141.01 million was reportedly paid to two contractors for software without clearance from the National Information Technology Development Agency.
The audit also raised questions over ₦16.93 million paid to 56 officers for National Social Register data reconciliation without supporting documentation and ₦14.53 million for staff reimbursement relating to validation and verification exercises.
According to SERAP, the ₦14.53 million reimbursement was paid to one officer rather than directly to the 55 staff concerned, while there were no acknowledgements confirming receipt by the intended recipients.
NASSCO was also reported to have awarded a ₦27.56 million contract for the design and printing of materials to an allegedly unqualified contractor and paid ₦44 million in insurance premiums to two companies without evidence of the premium payments.
SERAP said the pattern revealed by the Auditor-General went beyond isolated bookkeeping lapses, pointing instead to repeated failures of basic financial controls across programmes through which billions of naira were supposed to reach vulnerable Nigerians.
It cited the failure to conduct mandatory prepayment audits, missing payment and procurement records, inadequate beneficiary documentation, payments for goods and services whose delivery could not be verified and public funds for which satisfactory audit trails were unavailable.
SERAP therefore wants the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry and NCTO to provide Nigerians with state-by-state beneficiary figures, amounts disbursed, payment dates, failed and reversed transactions, funds returned to the Treasury and the administrative and transaction costs incurred under the cash-transfer programme.
It also wants the ministry to explain whether there is an independent mechanism for investigating complaints by people recorded as beneficiaries who did not receive payments, as well as cases where identities or bank accounts may have been used without the knowledge of their owners.
The organisation called for a comprehensive and regularly updated register of beneficiaries, subject to safeguards protecting the personal information and privacy of vulnerable Nigerians.
It further urged Tinubu to direct appropriate anti-corruption agencies to investigate the ₦76.24 billion in questioned expenditures at NCTO and ₦2.55 billion at NASSCO, recover any money established to have been improperly spent, diverted or lost and remit recovered funds to the Treasury.
“Every naira identified in the report must be properly accounted for, and any public funds found to have been diverted, misapplied or ‘paid to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries’ must be fully recovered and remitted to the Treasury,” SERAP said.
It added that anyone found responsible should be sanctioned and prosecuted where sufficient admissible evidence exists, irrespective of status, position or institutional affiliation.
SERAP gave the Tinubu administration seven days from the receipt or publication of its letter to address the demands, warning that otherwise it would consider legal proceedings, including possible action before the ECOWAS Court and the Inspection Panel of the World Bank Accountability Mechanism.
For SERAP, the central issue is whether billions of naira appropriated to provide relief to poor Nigerians can be traced through verifiable records from the public treasury to the people for whom the money was intended.
“The findings raise fundamental questions about the integrity, transparency and effectiveness of Nigeria’s social protection system, particularly where billions of naira are intended to provide assistance to poor and vulnerable households/beneficiaries,” the organisation said.
SERAP maintained that the government has constitutional and international obligations to account transparently for public resources, particularly funds dedicated to social protection, and said resolving the audit black holes was essential to establishing whether the cash-transfer programme actually delivered the money to its intended beneficiaries.
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