Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The federation account of Nigeria – the central pool into which all federally collected revenues are paid before distribution to the three tiers of government – has not been audited since 2021, House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts Chairman Bamidele Salam has disclosed. In an interview with TheCable, Salam said the absence of up-to-date audited financial reports makes it difficult for potential investors to access reliable information about the country’s public finances. “I want to tell you that the last time the account of the Federation of Nigeria was audited was 2021. That’s the report that you have,” the lawmaker said. “For the auditing of the federation account itself, the accountant-general for the federation will come up with excuses for what is causing the delays.”
The delay has persisted for nearly five years, leaving the most recent audit report available to the National Assembly frozen in time. The fiscal years 2022, 2023, 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 remain unexamined by the Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF). Salam attributed the backlog to a cascade of institutional failures spanning the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), the AuGF, and a legal framework that, in his view, neuters the independence of the nation’s top audit institution.
The lawmaker said the audit process is routinely stalled by delayed submission of financial records from the OAGF. “So, when the accountant-general does not produce the accounts for the auditor-general to audit, there is nothing for him to work with. So it’s a whole lot of issues that have led to those delays,” he explained. He also pointed to limited capacity within the AuGF, noting that the auditor-general lacks the authority to recruit staff independently and must rely on the Federal Civil Service Commission – a constraint that hampers efficiency and slows the recruitment of critical personnel. Insufficient funding, inadequate training, and the sheer volume of government agencies and financial records requiring scrutiny further compound the problem.
In a February 2026 investigative hearing, the accountant-general’s office, represented by Acting Director of Consolidated Accounts Shaibu Sikiru, attributed delays to operational challenges, including incomplete bank statements from the Central Bank of Nigeria for various MDAs, as well as technical and operational limitations associated the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS). The OAGF also confirmed that the last full reconciliation of government accounts was carried out in 2022, years after key GIFMIS contracts were renewed.
The Auditor-General for the Federation, Shaakaa Chira, told lawmakers at the same hearing that the absence of a constitutionally specified timeline for submitting financial statements has “hindered timely auditing” of the federation account. He confirmed that audit reports covering 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 are currently being finalised for submission to the National Assembly. Chira also acknowledged that constitutional and administrative gaps in the financial reporting framework have contributed to the delays, but assured investigators that efforts are ongoing to clear the backlog.
Salam said despite the legislative gaps, his committee has already recovered about N201,046,500,000 from multiple sectors using the only audit report available – the 2021 document. Nearly N200 billion of that sum was recovered from the oil and gas industry for unpaid royalties, concessions rent and gas-flaring penalties, with an additional N846.5 million recovered from the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission and N200 million from a probe involving the Remita payment platform.
However, the lawmaker raised a far more serious allegation regarding Remita, operated by SystemSpecs Nigeria Limited. He claimed the company has not complied with a legislative directive to remit substantial funds owed to the federal government. “About five banks paid back the money, but as we speak, Remita – which is the body, SystemSpecs Nigeria Limited – has not complied with the legislative directive to pay back the sum of almost N800 billion, which is due to the federal government of Nigeria,” Salam said. “It’s almost a trillion, actually, which they collected from the evidence we have; they did not remit to the government from 2015 to date.” The matter is now under investigation by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission and other relevant agencies.
The World Bank, in its April 2026 Nigeria Development Update, flagged the audit backlog as a serious obstacle to fiscal credibility. The report noted that Nigeria has not published audited federal government financial statements since 2021, and that the audit framework remains anchored in outdated legislation dating back to 1956, limiting its effectiveness in modern financial governance. The Bank also highlighted significant gaps in treasury operations, reporting that over 5,000 sub-accounts remain outside the Treasury Single Account (TSA) framework, and that fragmentation continues to hinder effective cash management and reconciliation.
The tardy audit cycle also weighs on borrowing costs. Nigeria’s total public debt rose to N159.27 trillion by the end of 2025, and the federal government recently secured approval to borrow an additional $6 billion from lenders in the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Without independent verification of the government’s ability to service those obligations, investors and multilateral partners may demand higher risk premiums – a stealth tax on future generations.
Salam disclosed that although the National Assembly has passed an audit reform bill aimed at strengthening the independence of the Supreme Audit Institution, the legislation is still awaiting harmonisation and presidential assent. He expressed hope that the law would significantly improve accountability and institutional independence once fully implemented. The committee has also set an October 2026 deadline for the OAGF and AuGF to submit all outstanding consolidated financial statements and audited accounts for 2023, 2024 and 2025, warning that non-compliance will attract legislative sanctions.
The implications of the audit failure extend beyond fiscal optics. With the 2027 general elections approaching, the absence of audited accounts deprives citizens of a clear picture of how their taxes, oil revenues and borrowed funds have been spent over nearly half a decade. Until audits for 2022 through 2025 are completed and made public, every claim about government revenue, expenditure and debt will rest on an incomplete evidentiary foundation. The federation account, in the words of one committee member, remains “a black box at the centre of Africa’s largest economy” – and five years of silence is a very long time.
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