Stolen funds? ₦76 Billion Paid Out To Non Existing Poor Nigerians By Bola Tinubu Government Through Nigeria’s Cash Transfer Programme

Secrets Reporters

In January 2024, President Bola Tinubu suspended Halima Shehu, then Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, over the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) allegations that ₦37.1 billion while some reports put the figure at ₦44 billion had moved out of the agency’s accounts to unexplained destinations in the final days of December 2023.

That story made national headlines and has remained publicly unresolved ever since, with Shehu still petitioning President Tinubu as recently as this year to release the EFCC’s findings and clear her name.

A Federal Government document obtained by SecretsReporters, covering the National Cash Transfer Office’s 2023 financial year, has now independently uncovered ₦76,319,589,674.22 in irregularities across eleven findings, the largest sum documented at any single institution in an entire investigative series that this medium is exclusively reporting on, and one that lines up closely with the scandal Nigerians have already heard about, but never seen fully accounted for.

The two largest findings sit at the very heart of the public scandal. Over ₦36.7 billion was paid out without the mandatory prepayment audit review that is supposed to catch exactly this kind of irregularity before money leaves the building. And nearly ₦33.8 billion represents cash transfers sent from NCTO to beneficiaries with no evidence that the money was ever received. Combined, these two findings alone account for over ₦70.5 billion money meant for some of Nigeria’s poorest households, moved without the internal check designed to prevent misuse, and paid out to beneficiaries who left no trace of having received it.

A further ₦4,616,158,349.69 in paid vouchers were never presented for examination when auditors came looking for them, in spending with no documentary trail available to check. This is precisely the pattern Halima Shehu herself has publicly pointed to in her own defence: she has said that during her brief tenure, unauthorised signatories were added to the agency’s Remita account with the Central Bank of Nigeria without her knowledge, that nearly ₦14 billion moved out of the agency’s accounts without her approval, and that she reported these exact irregularities to the ICPC on 22 December 2023, ten days before her own suspension.

₦280 million in mobilization fees went with no guarantee protecting the money if contractors failed to deliver
₦393,714,161.00 in refunds from unutilised State Cash Transfer Unit (SCTU) enrolment fund releases remain unaccounted for, money returned by states that never got properly reconciled back into NCTO’s books.

₦350,182,400.00 in unsubstantiated funds were disbursed to state coordinators, with no documentation showing what the money was used for once it left NCTO’s hands. ₦280,420,799.99 was paid out as mobilisation fees to contractors without the advance payment guarantee that protects public funds if a contractor takes the money and fails to deliver. ₦89,511,135.70 in store items were never taken on ledger charge.

₦37,587,067.58 was paid for the monitoring and evaluation of projects, under irregular circumstances the documents t does not further specify. ₦21,312,950.00 reflects undue financial interference by the Ministry supervising NCTO, a finding that raises the separate question of whether political interference from above compounded the agency’s internal control failures. ₦18,256,000.00 in payments violated the Federal Government’s e-payment policy. ₦17,421,893.50 in cash advances were granted above the approved limit. And separately, the agency failed to submit audited financial statements for the year under review.

The laws broken here are foundational to Nigeria’s public finance system. The Financial Regulations 2009 require prepayment audit review before any disbursement of this scale proceeds, violated outright by ₦36.74 billion. The same regulations require documented evidence that cash transfers actually reach their intended beneficiaries also violated by ₦33.75 billion in transfers with no evidence of receipt. And every payment voucher must remain available for audit examination, a requirement breached by ₦4.62 billion in vouchers NCTO could not produce.