The civil society organisation Socio‑Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has formally issued a seven-day ultimatum to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Olayemi Cardoso, demanding a full explanation of what it terms the “missing or diverted N3 trillion of public funds”.
This ultimatum, according to the group, stems from revelations in the 2022 annual audit report of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The organisation says the findings raise serious questions about financial accountability at the apex bank and demand urgent answers.
In its letter, dated November 15 and signed by its deputy director, the group insisted that the alleged infractions represent “grave violations of the public trust, the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the CBN Act, and anticorruption standards.”
The organisation is asking the CBN governor to provide a detailed explanation of how the funds were handled, identify the officials linked to the alleged diversions, and hand them over to the EFCC and ICPC for investigation. It also stressed that all the funds flagged in the audit must be recovered.
According to the group’s breakdown of the audit, the Auditor-General queried several major financial discrepancies.
These include the non-remittance of over N1.4 trillion in operating surplus, the inability to recover N629 billion paid to “unknown beneficiaries” under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, and the failure to recover N784 billion in overdue intervention loans.
One highlighted portion of the audit states that the CBN “failed to remit over N1 trillion [N1,445,593,400,000.00] of the Federal Government’s portion of operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.”
Another section questioned the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, noting that “the numbers of beneficiaries who collected the money are unknown.”
The report also raised concerns over intervention spending, stating that the bank used over N125 billion on activities described as “questionable,” with no documents provided to justify the expenditure.
The Auditor-General further pointed out that the CBN spent more than N1.7 billion on operational vehicles for the Nigeria Immigration Service—an expenditure considered outside the bank’s mandate.
The organisation reminded the CBN of its constitutional responsibilities and emphasised that Nigerians “have the right to know the whereabouts of the public funds.”
However, it warned that if the CBN fails to respond within seven days, it will initiate legal action to compel accountability.
Allah yasauwaka for this country