The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, demanding a full account of what it described as “missing or diverted N3 trillion of public funds” highlighted in the 2022 annual report of the Auditor-General of the Federation. SERAP said the allegations, publicly reported on September 9, 2025, raise serious concerns about breaches of financial regulations, transparency rules and constitutional provisions that guide the management of public resources in Nigeria.
In a letter dated November 15 and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said the Auditor-General’s findings “suggest grave violations of the public trust, the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the CBN Act, and anticorruption standards.” It also warned that the alleged breaches threaten public confidence in the country’s apex bank and weaken the integrity of monetary policy and financial governance.
According to SERAP’s statement, the Auditor-General queried the non-remittance of over N1.4 trillion in operating surplus, the failure to recover N629 billion reportedly paid to “unknown beneficiaries” under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, and the unresolved non-recovery of N784 billion in overdue intervention loans. One of the key excerpts from the report quoted by SERAP 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 (CRF) account.”
The report also raised concerns over the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, noting that “the numbers of beneficiaries who collected the money are unknown.” On intervention spending, the Auditor-General said the bank spent “over N125 billion [N125,374,000,000.00] on questionable intervention activities” without supporting documents or clear justification. SERAP added that the CBN spent more than N1.7 billion on operational vehicles for the Nigeria Immigration Service, quoting the Auditor-General’s remark that the spending was “unjustified because there is no connection with buying operational vehicles for the NIS and the objectives of the CBN.”
SERAP reminded the CBN of its constitutional duties, stressing that Nigerians “have the right to know the whereabouts of the public funds.” The organisation stated that it would take legal action if the bank fails to respond within seven days.
