Auditor-General says government cannot prove 3.29 million beneficiaries received the funds — Remita records allegedly blocked from auditors
A ₦33.75 billion hole in Nigeria’s cash-transfer accountability system has triggered a fresh demand for answers after the Auditor-General for the Federation said the government could not provide sufficient evidence that the money actually reached the 3.29 million households it was meant for.
The money was transferred electronically in 2023 to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states, according to the Auditor-General’s 2024 report on non-compliance and internal control weaknesses in federal ministries, departments and agencies. But when auditors went looking for the evidence, they could not establish who actually received the money.
The problem was not simply incomplete paperwork.
At the centre of the audit query is a missing Remita statement that should have shown the beneficiaries who were paid and allowed auditors to match them against names contained in the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register.
That document was not produced.
And according to the auditors, attempts to obtain it were allegedly obstructed by accounts staff of the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO).
The result: auditors said they could not authenticate the payments or determine whether the people who received the money were genuine beneficiaries.
₦33.75bn Without A Clear Paper Trail
The audit report recorded electronic transfers of ₦33,751,080,000 to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries listed on the government's beneficiary registers.
But the payment vouchers did not contain complete beneficiary details.
More troublingly, the NCTO failed to produce the Remita statement needed to reconcile the payments with the official registers.
Without that reconciliation, auditors could not independently establish that the money went to the people whose names appeared on the government's beneficiary lists.
The auditors therefore identified the risk of payments to ineligible or fictitious persons and possible loss of public funds.**
That does not, by itself, prove that the ₦33.75 billion was stolen.
It does, however, leave a huge accountability question hanging over the programme:
Who actually received the money?
Auditors Say They Were Blocked
The audit took an even more disturbing turn when officials were asked to provide the missing Remita records.
According to the report, attempts to obtain access to the statement were **“obstructed and denied”** by NCTO accounts staff.
The auditors said the action frustrated the audit process and prevented them from completing the verification of the payments.
For a programme involving billions of naira in public funds and millions of vulnerable Nigerians, the inability to produce the basic electronic payment trail raises serious questions about the strength of the controls surrounding the disbursement.
NCTO MNGT Did Not Answer
The situation was compounded by the failure of NCTO management to respond to the audit query.
The Auditor-General said the findings would remain valid until management responded and implemented the recommended corrective measures.
The auditors have now recommended that the official responsible for the national programme be made to appear before the **Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly** and account for the entire ₦33.75 billion.
More importantly, the official is expected to provide evidence that the funds actually reached the intended beneficiaries.
If the money cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, the Auditor-General recommended that it be **recovered and returned to the national treasury.**
The auditors also demanded documentary evidence confirming receipt of the funds by beneficiaries.
Failure to provide the required evidence, they warned, should attract sanctions for irregular payments under the applicable Financial Regulations.
And Then Came The Other Billions
The ₦33.75 billion query was not an isolated finding. The Auditor-General raised eight separate audit queries involving billions of naira and identified significant weaknesses in the NCTO's internal control system.
Among the other findings was ₦36.74 billion paid through 215 vouchers without the required internal audit or pre-payment checks.
Auditors also questioned ₦4.62 billion in payments for which paid vouchers could not be produced.
Another *₦350.18 million disbursed to states for the enrolment of unbanked beneficiaries was not satisfactorily accounted for.
The auditors said supporting documentation, including beneficiary lists, photographs, attendance registers, enrolment reports and acknowledgements, was missing for the affected funds.
There was also a query over ₦393.71 million reportedly returned by nine State Cash Transfer Units without sufficient evidence that the money had been credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
A further ₦280.42 million paid to payment service providers as mobilisation was questioned because auditors said the required Advance Payment Guarantee and key procurement documents were not provided.
The audit also identified store-management and diesel procurement irregularities involving millions of naira.
The Big Question
The figures are staggering. But the most explosive part of the audit is not simply the amount of money involved.
It is the inability of the government office responsible for distributing the funds to provide the records needed to demonstrate exactly who received them.
Nigeria's social-transfer programme was designed to put money directly into the hands of vulnerable citizens.
For that promise to have meaning, every naira must be traceable.
Every beneficiary must be identifiable.
And every payment must leave an auditable trail.
The Auditor-General says that trail was not adequately provided for ₦33.75 billion.
Now the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committees face a straightforward question:
Who Received N33.75bn?
Until the Remita records and other supporting evidence are produced, that question remains unanswered. And for a government programme involving millions of Nigeria's poorest households, that is an accountability failure that cannot simply be buried in another audit report.
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The ₦33.75bn Bombshell: Millions Listed, Recipients Unverified
