An audit has raised serious questions about billions of naira recorded as social support payments in 2023, exposing weaknesses in the government’s ability to prove who received the money meant for vulnerable Nigerians.
Nigeria’s social protection programme was designed to provide a financial lifeline to households struggling with poverty. But a new audit finding has exposed a troubling contradiction: the government recorded billions of naira in cash transfers while failing to provide the documentation needed to establish who actually received the money.
According to the Auditor-General for the Federation’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in federal ministries, departments and agencies, the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) reported electronic transfers totalling ₦33.751 billion to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states in 2023.
Yet auditors could not independently verify the recipients.
The payment vouchers reportedly lacked complete beneficiary details. More critically, the Remita statements required to reconcile the payments with names on the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register were not made available.
The report says efforts to obtain access to the statements were obstructed by NCTO accounts staff, frustrating the audit process. The office did not provide a satisfactory response to the query, leaving the finding unresolved.
This is not a minor administrative omission. It strikes at the foundation of a public programme whose legitimacy depends on reaching the right people.
The Difference Between Recording a Payment and Proving It
A government agency can record a transaction as completed. But a recorded payment is not, by itself, proof that the intended recipient received the money.
For a cash transfer programme, accountability requires a traceable chain: an eligible household must be identified, its details recorded, a payment authorised, the transfer processed, and receipt confirmed. Auditors must then be able to compare the payment records against the beneficiary register.
The missing Remita statements obstructed that process.
Without a complete payment trail, auditors could not establish whether the funds reached eligible households, whether recipients matched the official registers, or whether any payments went to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries.
The Auditor-General identified the risk of public funds being lost and payments being made to people who were not entitled to receive them.
That warning must be taken seriously—but it must also be interpreted accurately. The audit finding does not, on its own, prove that the entire ₦33.75 billion was stolen or that all 3.29 million beneficiaries were fictitious. It establishes that the agency failed to provide sufficient evidence for the payments to be independently verified.
That distinction matters. Accountability requires evidence, not assumptions. But the absence of evidence is itself a serious failure when public money is involved.
A Programme Meant to Protect the Vulnerable
The National Cash Transfer Office administers the conditional cash transfer component of the National Social Safety Nets Project, a World Bank-financed initiative intended to support poor and vulnerable households identified through Nigeria’s social register.
The 2023 transactions spanned two administrations. Sadiya Farouk served as humanitarian affairs minister under former President Muhammadu Buhari, while Betta Edu held the position under President Bola Tinubu during the same year.
The audit finding therefore raises questions about institutional oversight across the transition—not simply about one administration or one minister.
Nigeria’s economic circumstances made the programme especially important. Following the removal of the petrol subsidy in May 2023, households faced mounting pressure from higher transport costs, food prices and inflation. Cash transfers were presented as part of the government’s response to the hardship.
In that context, the failure to verify payments is more than a bookkeeping concern. It undermines public confidence in a programme designed to provide relief to people with little financial protection.
The people who depend on social support should not be left wondering whether the system meant to help them is functioning properly.
₦33.75 Billion Is Only One Part of the Audit Concern
The beneficiary verification issue is among eight audit queries raised against the NCTO, involving a combined ₦76.24 billion in questioned transactions.
Other findings point to broader weaknesses in financial management.
Auditors queried ₦36.74 billion in payments made without the required prepayment audit checks. They also identified ₦4.62 billion in payments for which the office did not provide the corresponding payment vouchers.
Separately, approximately ₦3.09 billion was reportedly transferred to states for enrolling unbanked, poor and vulnerable households. Documentation was provided for ₦2.74 billion, leaving ₦350.18 million unaccounted for in the records examined. The supporting documents were also found inadequate, with beneficiary lists, attendance registers and activity reports among the materials reportedly missing.
Another ₦393.71 million was said to have been returned to the Treasury by nine State Cash Transfer Units after enrolment exercises could not proceed, reportedly because of insecurity, disasters and other factors. However, auditors said the NCTO did not provide the statements and payment slips needed to confirm that the refunds reached the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The report also questioned ₦280.42 million paid to payment service providers as mobilisation advances without advance payment guarantees and without procurement documentation sufficient to demonstrate that due process had been followed.
These are separate audit findings, and each requires its own examination. Taken together, however, they suggest that the problem extends beyond a missing beneficiary list: the systems for documenting, authorising, tracking and verifying expenditure appear to require substantial improvement.
The Accountability Test: Publish the Evidence
The Auditor-General recommended that the National Programme Manager account for the ₦33.75 billion before the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly and provide evidence that beneficiaries received the funds. The report also recommended recovery and remittance to the Treasury where the payments could not be satisfactorily accounted for.
These recommendations should not end with a formal response or an internal review.
The government should publish a credible reconciliation of the payment records against the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register, while protecting beneficiaries’ personal information. It should disclose the number of payments successfully verified, identify discrepancies, explain unresolved cases and state whether any funds have been recovered.
The National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committees should examine the records and establish who was responsible for maintaining them, why auditors were denied access, and what corrective measures have been taken.
Where evidence points to misconduct, the relevant authorities should investigate and pursue appropriate sanctions. Where beneficiaries were wrongly excluded or payments failed, the programme should provide a clear process for resolving those cases.
A social intervention programme cannot be judged only by the amount of money it says it has disbursed. Its credibility depends on whether the intended households actually receive support—and whether the government can prove it.
Public Money Requires Public Accountability
Nigeria’s cash transfer programme was created to help people exposed to poverty and economic shocks. That mission makes transparency more important, not less.
The ₦33.75 billion audit finding does not establish that every naira was diverted. But it does expose a fundamental accountability failure: the agency responsible for distributing public funds could not provide the records needed to verify the recipients, and auditors say their efforts to obtain those records were obstructed.
For a country where millions of households are struggling with the cost of living, this is a matter of public trust.
The question is no longer simply how much the government recorded as paid. It is whether the state can demonstrate that the money reached the people it was intended to protect.
Until that evidence is produced, the ₦33.75 billion remains an unresolved test of Nigeria’s commitment to transparency, social protection and responsible management of public funds.
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