SERAP urges Tinubu to probe ₦78.8 billion in cash-transfer funds

SERAP has asked President Bola Tinubu to order a full accounting of more than ₦78.8 billion linked to Nigeria's federal cash-transfer programme. The organisation said the money was “diverted, unaccounted for or irregularly spent.”

In a letter dated September 5, 2026, and signed by Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP urged Tinubu to direct the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction and the National Cash Transfer Office to publish the complete records and audit trail for ₦33.751 billion in 2023 cash transfers. The requested records include beneficiaries' names, payments, verification, authorisations and reconciliation. SERAP also asked the agencies to explain why they failed to provide REMITA records to the Auditor-General.

The organisation said the allegations appear in the 2024 Annual Report of the Auditor-General of the Federation, published on August 7, 2026. The report covered various periods from January to December 2023 and ended on December 31, 2024. SERAP said the National Cash Transfer Office paid ₦33.751 billion to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries in 35 states without evidence confirming that recipients received the money.

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diverted, unaccounted for or irregularly spent

According to the group, the Auditor-General found that the office failed to provide REMITA statements needed to authenticate payments and establish whether beneficiaries were genuine and eligible. The audit also raised concerns about incomplete beneficiary information and obstacles to the audit process. SERAP called for payments to be reconciled against the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register, with independent checks to identify duplicate, fictitious, deceased, ineligible or otherwise irregular beneficiaries.

SERAP further asked the president to require explanations for ₦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 urged anticorruption agencies to investigate ₦76.24 billion in questionable and unaccounted-for expenditures at the National Cash Transfer Office and ₦2.55 billion at the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office.

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publish the full records and audit trail of the ₦33.751 billion 2023 cash transfers, including the name of the beneficiaries, payments, verification, authorisations and reconciliation, and to explain the failure to provide REMITA records to the Auditor-General.