Nigeria: Cash Transfer Office Cannot Identify 'Beneficiaries' of N33.75 Billion Disbursement - Audit Report

What the report says

The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development’s UDEME project says an audit report has raised serious questions about the National Cash Transfer Office’s handling of large payments tied to Nigeria’s social safety net programme. According to the report cited by AllAfrica, the office said it transferred ₦33.75 billion in 2023 to millions of households and beneficiaries across 35 states, but auditors said they could not confirm who actually received the funds because key vouchers were incomplete and staff would not allow access to bank records that could have verified the transactions.

The audit, which covers 2023 and appears in the Auditor-General’s 2024 report on federal ministries, departments and agencies, also flagged other payments at the office. These included ₦36.74 billion in vouchers that auditors said were paid without the required pre-payment review, and ₦4.62 billion in spending for which no supporting vouchers were produced. The report further questioned ₦3.09 billion sent to states for enrollment work, part of which remained unexplained, and noted that some refund evidence was missing.

The National Cash Transfer Office runs the conditional cash transfer arm of the National Social Safety Nets Project, a World Bank-backed programme intended for poor households on the National Social Register. The article says the office did not respond to the audit queries. The Auditor-General recommended that responsible officials account for the funds, recover amounts where necessary and forward proof of compliance to the National Assembly’s public accounts committees. In broader context, the programme has faced political scrutiny in Nigeria since 2024, when the federal government moved to suspend and review social investment operations over alleged payment irregularities.