By Secrets Reporters
A Federal Government review of the National Biotechnology Development Agency’s 2024 financial year has uncovered ₦564,992,109.20 in irregularities across ten findings, with more than 80 per cent of the total tied to a single inventory failure that has left hundreds of millions in public funds unaccounted for.
NABDA is the agency driving Nigeria’s push into genetic engineering, drought-resistant crops and livestock improvement work that depends on precise, well-documented laboratory and field operations. Yet the review found that ₦453,880,130.00 in store items were never taken on ledger charge, meaning goods procured with public money were never properly entered into the Agency’s inventory system. The result is that it is now impossible to verify what NABDA actually received for that money.
The remaining findings, point to weak internal controls across the Agency’s operations. They include ₦33,186,127.99 in irregular payments for cleaning and fumigation, ₦21,258,714.50 and a separate ₦12,293,094.00 in cash advances granted above the approved limit, and ₦12,111,278.74 in non-deducted and non-remitted statutory 1% stamp duty. The review also flagged ₦9,092,350.00 paid for contracts never executed, ₦7,245,937.50 in unsubstantiated payments, ₦6,130,240.00 in unjustified out-of-pocket expense payments, ₦8,534,500.00 in violations of the Federal Government’s e-payment policy, and ₦1,259,736.47 in overpayment to a contractor.
Professor Abdullahi Mustapha has served as Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NABDA since 2020, spanning the entire audited year, and was reappointed by President Bola Tinubu for a second five-year term in 2024. As the Agency’s chief executive and accounting officer, responsibility for the inventory and cash controls found lacking rests with his administration.
The irony is difficult to miss. An agency built on precise scientific record-keeping tracking genetic samples, crop trial data and laboratory results with the accuracy biotechnology research demands cannot itself account for ₦453.88 million in procured goods within its own store ledger. That gap between scientific rigour and administrative discipline is exactly what the review exposes.
The rules broken here are specific. The Financial Regulations 2009 require that all procured goods be properly recorded on store ledgers, a requirement violated outright by the ₦453.88 million finding. Treasury Circular guidance on cash advance limits was breached twice over, by ₦21.26 million and ₦12.29 million respectively. Nigeria’s Stamp Duties Act requires proper deduction and remittance of statutory stamp duty violated by ₦12.11 million. And the Federal Government’s e-payment policy was breached by ₦8.53 million in non-compliant payments.
