N33.75bn Cash Transfer Scandal: Auditor-General Demands Proof of Beneficiaries as NCTO Fires Back

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Nigeria’s National Cash Transfer Office says an audit query over N33.75 billion is not evidence of fraud, while the Auditor-General insists payment records were insufficient to verify who received the money.

The National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) has rejected claims that N33.75 billion in government cash transfers cannot be accounted for, following an audit report which said the government failed to provide sufficient evidence that the money reached genuine beneficiaries.

NCTO, in a statement issued Wednesday, described public interpretations of the audit finding as “materially incomplete”, arguing that an audit observation should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that public funds were stolen, diverted or lost.

The office said the payments were made electronically through the programme’s payment system to beneficiaries already captured in the National Beneficiary Register.

The controversy follows the Auditor-General for the Federation’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses, which examined NCTO’s 2023 accounts.

The report, submitted to the National Assembly on July 17, 2026, said electronic transfers totalling N33,751,080,000 were made to 3,295,207 households across 35 states.

However, auditors said they could not independently establish that the beneficiaries who received the money were genuine.

On page 90 of the report, auditors said payment vouchers did not contain complete beneficiary information and that NCTO failed to provide a Remita statement that could be matched against names on the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register.

According to the Auditor-General, the absence of those records made it difficult to authenticate the payments and establish whether the intended beneficiaries actually received the funds.

The report also alleged that attempts by auditors to obtain access to the Remita payment records were unsuccessful.

“All efforts to obtain access to the REMITA statement were obstructed and denied by NCTO accounts staff, thereby frustrating the audit process,” the report stated.

The Auditor-General identified possible loss of public funds and payments to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries as risks arising from the failure to provide adequate documentation.

He recommended that the national programme manager account for the N33.75 billion before the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly and produce evidence showing that the intended beneficiaries received the payments.

Where such evidence could not be produced, the report recommended recovery of the money and payment into the Treasury.

The report further stated that NCTO management had not responded to the query when the audit report was finalised, leaving the observation outstanding pending implementation of the recommendations.

NCTO, however, said the audit conclusion did not take account of the electronic nature of the programme.

The office argued that millions of beneficiary records are maintained digitally and therefore do not need to be reproduced on every payment voucher where an electronic audit trail exists.

It said beneficiaries were subjected to identification, validation and authorisation processes before payments were made.

NCTO also disputed the allegation that its officials obstructed the audit.

The office said the 2023 National Beneficiary Register was sent to the audit team by email on April 18, 2025, at 11:48am, while records for 2024 and 2025 were transmitted on April 21, 2026, at 6:25pm.

It further said the project accountant had emails showing that a Remita payment report was also provided to the auditors.

According to NCTO, the emails provide documentary evidence that the payment information was made available during the audit process and can be independently verified.

“The existence of contemporaneous email evidence showing transmission of the REMITA report provides an objective documentary basis for establishing whether the payment information was made available during the audit process,” the office said.

The Auditor-General’s office has not publicly confirmed NCTO’s account of the email exchanges.

The N33.75 billion query was also only one of several issues raised against NCTO in the audit report.

Auditors separately questioned N36.74 billion paid in December 2023 through 215 vouchers without prepayment or internal audit checks, N4.616 billion in 101 payments for which paid vouchers were not produced, and N350.18 million in state enrolment funds without adequate supporting documentation.

The report also raised concerns over N393.71 million returned by nine states without evidence that the money had been credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, as well as N280.42 million advanced to payment service providers.

NCTO said it had explanations or supporting documentation for the various queries. It argued, among other things, that World Bank project procedures allowed post-payment audits rather than the conventional prepayment process, requested transaction-by-transaction details concerning the N4.62 billion query and said documents relating to enrolment funds were being resubmitted.

The office also said unused state funds and advances to service providers were subsequently refunded, with Remita evidence available to support the transactions.

The audit controversy has attracted political and civil society pressure as the Federal Government pursues an expansion of its social protection and cash-transfer programmes.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called for publication of the complete 2023 payment trail and an accounting of more than N78.8 billion linked to cash-transfer and related offices.

Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has also called for an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, while the African Democratic Congress described the intervention programme as a “racket”.

Those demands, however, are separate from the Auditor-General’s actual finding.

The audit report did not conclude that N33.75 billion was stolen or diverted. Its central finding was that the records presented to auditors were insufficient to authenticate the beneficiaries who received the money.

NCTO is now insisting that the relevant electronic records exist and were made available, including through email.

The dispute therefore turns on a question that can potentially be resolved through documentary verification: whether the Remita payment records can be independently matched against the National Beneficiary Register and other relevant records.

Until that verification is carried out by the Auditor-General, the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committees or another competent authority, the key question remains unanswered: who received the N33.75 billion, and can the government produce verifiable records proving that the money reached the intended beneficiaries?