The National Cash Transfer Office has rejected claims that the Federal Government failed to account for N33.75bn disbursed under its cash transfer programme, saying the money was paid through established electronic channels to beneficiaries registered in the National Beneficiary Register.
The NCTO’s response followed an audit report by the Auditor-General for the Federation which questioned whether N33.751bn transferred to more than 3.29 million households across 35 states in 2023 actually reached genuine beneficiaries. The findings were contained in the 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in federal ministries, departments and agencies.
The audit examined transactions carried out by the NCTO during the 2023 financial year and raised eight separate queries involving billions of naira. Among the concerns was the inability of auditors to independently reconcile the electronic payments with the names contained in the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register.
The auditors said payment vouchers did not contain sufficient beneficiary information and that a Remita statement showing the actual recipients of the funds was not presented for examination. They said the absence of the records made it difficult to establish whether the people who received the money were genuine beneficiaries.
The NCTO, however, said the audit findings had been interpreted in a manner that went beyond what the auditors actually established.
In its response, the office stressed that an audit query should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that funds were stolen, diverted or misappropriated. It said the observations were subject to management responses, reconciliation and examination of supporting documentation before any final conclusion could be reached.
The agency maintained that the payments were made through the programme’s approved electronic payment architecture and were linked to beneficiaries captured in its information systems. It explained that beneficiary records are maintained electronically, meaning that the supporting evidence does not necessarily have to be reproduced in physical payment vouchers when an electronic audit trail exists.
The NCTO also directly disputed the suggestion that it prevented auditors from accessing the relevant Remita records.
According to the office, emails exist showing that beneficiary information and payment records were transmitted to the audit team. It said the 2023 National Beneficiary Register was sent to the auditors by email on April 18, 2025, while records relating to subsequent years were also transmitted in April 2026.
The office further said its project accountant retained correspondence demonstrating that the Remita payment report had been shared with the auditors, challenging the audit report’s account that access to the records had been obstructed.
The dispute therefore centres less on whether electronic transfers were made and more on whether the documentation supplied to auditors was sufficient to independently establish the identities of the recipients and reconcile them with the government’s beneficiary databases.
The Auditor-General’s report had called attention to weaknesses in the NCTO’s internal control system, while the latest response from the agency indicates that it intends to provide further documentary evidence to support the payments.
The controversy comes at a time when Nigeria’s social intervention programmes face heightened scrutiny over beneficiary identification, payment transparency and accountability for public funds. The outcome of any further reconciliation between the NCTO’s electronic records and the Auditor-General’s findings will be important in determining whether the concerns amount to documentation failures or reveal substantive irregularities in the cash transfer programme.
