An audit has raised eight queries over ₦76.24bn in National Cash Transfer Office spending, citing missing records and inadequate payment checks

Nigeria’s National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) is facing eight audit queries involving ₦76.24 billion in expenditure, following concerns over missing beneficiary records, inadequate payment documentation and transactions that were not subjected to required financial checks.

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The findings are contained in the Auditor-General of the Federation’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, which examined the office’s transactions for the 2023 financial year.

Among the most significant concerns is ₦33.75 billion reportedly transferred to 3.29 million households and beneficiaries across 35 states.

However, auditors said the payment vouchers did not contain complete beneficiary details, while the Remita statements needed to verify the recipients and authenticate the transfers were not presented for examination.

The Auditor-General said the absence of these records made it difficult to establish whether the money reached genuine and eligible beneficiaries. The report also alleged that efforts to obtain access to the Remita statements were obstructed by the office’s accounts staff.

Another major query concerns ₦36.74 billion paid through 215 payment vouchers in December 2023 without the required prepayment audit or internal audit checks.

According to the report, the Internal Audit Unit examined the transactions only after the payments had been made, contrary to the Financial Regulations requiring prepayment checks.

The auditors also identified 101 payments totalling ₦4.62 billion for which the corresponding payment vouchers were not presented. Without those documents, they said, the transactions and the purposes for which the money was spent could not be verified.

A further ₦350.18 million released to states for enrolling unbanked, poor and vulnerable households was not adequately accounted for.

Although documents covering ₦2.74 billion of the total state disbursements were presented, auditors said the remaining amount lacked sufficient supporting records.

The report also raised concerns about missing beneficiary lists, attendance registers, photographs and activity reports needed to establish that the enrolment exercises took place.

Other issues included ₦280.42 million paid to payment service providers as mobilisation advances without the required advance payment guarantees, as well as inadequate procurement records to demonstrate that the providers were selected through due process.

The auditors also questioned ₦393.71 million reportedly returned by nine State Cash Transfer Units after enrolment exercises were not conducted.

The office did not provide sufficient evidence that the refunds had been credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The Auditor-General recommended that the National Programme Manager account for the questioned funds, recover and remit amounts requiring recovery to the Treasury, and provide evidence of the transactions to the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committees.

The report warned that the findings would remain valid until the recommendations were addressed.

However, the audit queries should not automatically be interpreted as proof that the money was stolen or diverted. The National Cash Transfer Office has disputed some of the findings, particularly the concerns over the ₦33.75 billion in electronic transfers.

In a statement reported in September 2026, the office said beneficiary records and payment information were maintained electronically and that it had evidence showing relevant data had been sent to the audit team. It also rejected the allegation that its officials deliberately obstructed access to payment records.

The agency argued that an audit query was not, by itself, a final determination of fraud or financial loss. It also said it was prepared to provide further documentation and reconcile disputed transactions.

The disagreement places the focus on whether the office can produce verifiable records to support its explanation and satisfy the Auditor-General’s recommendations.

The cash transfer programme was designed to provide financial assistance to poor and vulnerable households under Nigeria’s social protection framework. Its accountability is therefore significant for the millions of people the initiative was intended to support.

The findings have also drawn attention to wider concerns about oversight of public funds allocated to social protection.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a case at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice seeking accountability for ₦78.8 billion in questioned expenditure involving the NCTO and another social protection agency.

The central issue now is whether the relevant authorities can establish where the money went, identify the beneficiaries who received it and account for transactions that auditors say remain inadequately documented.

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Until the records are examined and the outstanding queries resolved, questions over the management of the funds intended for vulnerable Nigerians are likely to persist.