BudgIT queries Budget Office over ₦1.3bn fake agency budget entry

Civic tech organization, BudgIT has queried the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu over how the fictitious Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) managed to secure an official budget line item and an allocation of ₦1.3 billion in Nigeria’s 2026 Appropriation Act.

While the Budget Office in a statement insisted that ex-post release controls successfully blocked any disbursement of funds to the entity, BudgIT argued that focusing on the non-release of cash misses the core point.

It demamded answers as to how a fake entity breached front-end check in the budgeting architecture.

BudgIT questioned how an entity without legal founding managed to pass through multiple statutory gates before reaching the presidential desk for signature.

“This is bigger than the ₦1.3 billion. If the controls worked only after the allocation had already made it into the Appropriation Act, then we need to ask a bigger question about the controls that govern how things get into the budget in the first place,” the organisation noted.

Recall that the Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, appearing before a House of Representatives ad-hoc committee, explained that the agency acted on documentation and fiscal instruments received through official channels. 

President Bola Tinubu has since directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to conduct a 30-day investigation into the administrative breach.