The National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) said it paid ₦33.75 billion to 3.29 million citizens across 35 states in 2023. While there are no vouchers showing who received this money, the agency's accounts staff also blocked auditors from checking the bank records that would have confirmed the payments, the UDEME project of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has found.
The finding is one of eight queries against the NCTO in the Auditor-General's 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in MDAs, which covers 1st January to 31st December 2023.
The NCTO did not respond to any of the eight queries raised by the Auditor General of the Federation, Shaakaa Chira, all of which amounted to ₦76.24 billion, according to figures seen by UDEME. While management of the cash transfer office did not respond to any of the eight issues raised, Mr Chira said the findings remain valid until the audit recommendations are implemented.
The agency runs the conditional cash transfer component of the National Social Safety Nets Project, a World Bank-financed programme that pays poor households identified on the National Social Register. The office sits under the National Social Investment Programme Agency, which in turn reports to the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.
The cash transfer programme ended in 2023 at the centre of a national scandal. President Bola Tinubu suspended the agency's chief executive, Halima Shehu, on 2 January 2024 over alleged financial misappropriation. Ms Shehu had previously been the National Coordinator of the conditional cash transfer programme. Ten days later, the president froze all four programmes run by the agency, including the cash transfer programme, for six weeks in the first instance, citing "operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the programme beneficiaries."
Payments With No Proof of Receipt
Paragraph 613 of the Financial Regulations (2009) requires that payments shall be made only to the persons named in the vouchers or their properly authorised representatives, while paragraph 603(i) requires every voucher to carry full particulars of each service so it can be checked without reference to other documents.
The NCTO said it made electronic transfers amounting to ₦33.75 billion to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries in 35 states for the year 2023, but the paid vouchers for the payments did not contain the full details of the beneficiaries.
However, the Remita statement, which would show which beneficiaries were actually paid against those listed on the National Social Register (NSR), was not presented for audit. This hindered the authentication of the payments and made it difficult to ascertain whether the beneficiaries who received the funds were genuine, according to the audit report.
"All efforts to obtain access to the REMITA statement were obstructed and denied by NCTO accounts staff, thereby frustrating the audit process," the Auditor-General said, noting that
the inability to verify the payments created a risk of loss of public funds and payments being made to ineligible or fictitious persons.
The Auditor-General recommended that the National Programme Manager, Abdullahi Alhassan Imam, be asked to account for the ₦33.75 billion, recover and remit it to the Treasury. Evidence of receipt of the fund by the beneficiaries should also be forwarded to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly, or otherwise face sanctions for irregular payment as enshrined under paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations.
₦36.7bn Paid in One Month Without Internal Audit Checks
In a second query, the report said 215 payment vouchers totalling ₦36.74 billion for "SS, IDA & output base" transactions in December 2023 were raised and paid without internal audit checks or prepayment audit.
Paragraph 1705 of the Financial Regulations requires the head of internal audit in every ministry and agency to "ensure that a 100% pre-payment audit of all checked and passed vouchers is carried out." None of the 215 vouchers underwent the required audit, the auditors found. Instead, the Internal Audit Unit checked them after payment, contrary to its prescribed prepayment function.
The report noted that the World Bank's November 2021 Project Appraisal Document for the programme's scale-up provided for the Internal Audit Unit to conduct compliance and operational audits without adopting a prepayment audit system.
The Auditor-General nevertheless found the practice contrary to Nigeria's Financial Regulations. He recommended that the ₦36.74 billion covered by the vouchers be fully accounted for and recovered and that those responsible be sanctioned for gross misconduct under paragraph 3129 of the regulations.
₦4.6bn of Vouchers Never Produced
The auditors also found that the office made 101 payments totalling ₦4.62 billion from the "S&S/IDA Cash Book" without presenting the corresponding payment vouchers for examination. As such, the auditors could not verify the payments or the expenditures they purportedly covered.
The report said this contravened the Auditor-General's constitutional right of access to public-account records under Section 85(2) of the Constitution. It also breached paragraph 601 of the Financial Regulations, which states that "under no circumstances shall a cheque be raised or cash paid for services for which a voucher has not been raised."
The auditors identified the resulting risks as "misapplication of public funds" and "diversion of public funds" and recommended recovery of the entire ₦4.62 billion.
Money Sent to States for Enrollment
The auditors found that 32 payments totalling ₦3.09 billion were made from the "NASSP SCALE-UP Cash Book" to states for the enrolment of unbanked poor and vulnerable households. Documents covering ₦2.74 billion disbursed to 34 states were presented for audit, but ₦350.18 million remained unaccounted for, according to the report.
The supporting vouchers were also inadequate. They were "vague" and did not specify how the funds were used or the activities they financed. The auditors said they lacked beneficiary lists, photographs of enrollment exercises, signed attendance registers, activity reports and the names of recipients who received payments during the exercises.
A separate query involved ₦393.71 million that nine State Cash Transfer Units reportedly returned to the Treasury in 2023 after failing to conduct enrollment exercises. The office attributed the failure to "insecurity, disasters, and other factors."
However, the auditors said the office provided neither REMITA inflow statements nor payment slips showing that the refunds had been credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. It also provided no evidence that the affected states subsequently enrolled the intended beneficiaries.
Mobilisation Paid to Payment Providers Without Guarantee
The NCTO also paid ₦280.42 million to payment service providers as a 30 percent advance for implementing a "last-mile solution" for beneficiaries, according to the report. The advance was paid without an advance payment guarantee, contrary to Section 71 of the Finance Act 2020, which requires a guarantee for mobilisation fees.
The auditors also found no evidence that due process was followed in selecting the service providers. The contractors' files contained no pre-qualification documents, bidding records or technical and financial evaluations to support the selection or payments.
Auditor-General Demands Funds Recovery
The Auditor-General has directed that the National Programme Manager of the National Cash Transfer Office accounts for the funds in question, recover and remit them into the Treasury and to also submit evidence of the remittance to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly. Where this is not done, the report invokes paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations, which gives an officer responsible for an irregular payment 21 days to provide an explanation before the amount may be recovered personally from the officer and the officer removed from the schedule. It also cites paragraph 3129, which provides for sanctions for gross misconduct.
The report's cross-cutting analysis placed the office first among federal agencies flagged for making payments without supporting documents, without prepayment audit and for failing to present paid vouchers for examination.
In March 2026, the NCTO's Programme Manager, Abdullahi Alhassan Imam, said the cash transfer initiative had increased its target from 10.4 million to 15 million beneficiaries.
