SERAP Urges Tinubu to Probe ₦78.8 Billion Cash-Transfer Scandal and Recover Funds

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has urged President Bola Tinubu to order an investigation into more than ₦78.8 billion in public funds that it says were diverted, left unaccounted for or spent irregularly.

SERAP based its request on the 2024 Annual Report of the Auditor-General of the Federation, published on Aug. 7, 2026. The findings covered periods between January and December 2023 and through Dec. 31, 2024, according to the organization.

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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 group asked Tinubu to direct the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, the National Cash Transfer Office and the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office to publish the complete records and audit trail for ₦33.751 billion in 2023 cash transfers. It also requested details of beneficiaries, payments, verification, authorizations and reconciliation, as well as an explanation for the absence of REMITA records requested by the auditor-general.

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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.

SERAP separately cited ₦36.744 billion in payments made without prepayment audits, ₦4.616 billion in unsupported expenditures, ₦350.182 million in enrollment payments, ₦89.511 million in store purchases and ₦17.422 million in diesel advances. It called for anticorruption agencies to investigate ₦76.24 billion in questionable and unaccounted-for expenditures at the National Cash Transfer Office and ₦2.55 billion at NASSCO.

In a letter dated Sept. 5 and signed by deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP said anyone found responsible should face sanctions and prosecution if admissible evidence supports the case. The organization demanded that every improperly spent or diverted naira be recovered and remitted to the Treasury. It gave the government seven days to act and said it could seek legal remedies, including before the ECOWAS Court and the World Bank Accountability Mechanism, if it received no response.

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We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter.