SERAP urges Tinubu to investigate alleged ₦78.8 billion cash-transfer scandal

SERAP is demanding a full accounting of more than ₦78.8 billion in public funds it says were diverted, left unaccounted for or spent irregularly through Nigeria’s cash-transfer system.

In a letter to President Bola Tinubu, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project urged him to direct the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, the National Cash Transfer Office and the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office to explain the spending. The allegations appear in the Auditor-General of the Federation’s 2024 annual report, published on 7 August 2026, covering periods between January and December 2023 and ending on 31 December 2024.

SERAP asked the ministry and the National Cash Transfer Office to publish the records and audit trail for ₦33.751 billion in 2023 cash transfers. It requested the names of beneficiaries, payment and verification details, authorisations and reconciliations, as well as an explanation for the failure to provide REMITA records to the Auditor-General.

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Anyone suspected to be responsible should be sanctioned and prosecuted as appropriate if sufficient admissible evidence is established, irrespective of status, position or institutional affiliation.

The organisation also cited ₦36.744 billion in payments made without prepayment audits, ₦4.616 billion in unsupported expenditures, ₦350.182 million in enrolment payments, ₦89.511 million in store purchases and ₦17.422 million in diesel advances. It called for investigations into ₦76.24 billion in questionable or unaccounted-for spending at the National Cash Transfer Office and ₦2.55 billion at NASSCO.

“Anyone suspected to be responsible should be sanctioned and prosecuted as appropriate if sufficient admissible evidence is established, irrespective of status, position or institutional affiliation,” said SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, who signed the letter dated 5 September 2026. SERAP said every naira identified in the report must be accounted for and any improperly spent or diverted funds recovered and returned to the Treasury. It gave the government seven days to act before considering legal measures.

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Every naira identified in the report must be properly accounted for, and any public funds found to have been diverted, misapplied or ‘paid to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries’ must be fully recovered and remitted to the Treasury.