The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, has told the House of Representatives that no money was released to the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), despite a ₦1.32 billion provision in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
Yakubu made the clarification on Friday while appearing before the House Ad-Hoc Committee investigating the alleged unlawful establishment and funding of the council.
According to him, although funds were allocated on paper, the statutory conditions required before any government agency can access public funds were never met.
“The Budget Office did not create the council. It did not assign its budget code. It did not approve its establishment. It did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments and did what the law required of it. It measured their fiscal effect,” Yakubu said.
He explained that while the council requested ₦3.8 billion for personnel costs, the Budget Office rejected the proposal and carried out its own assessment based on approved government salary structures.
According to him, the office approved a lower personnel estimate of ₦802.98 million, but no money was eventually released because the required financial clearance was never granted.
“There was therefore no financial clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrolment. There was no salary payment,” he stated.
Yakubu stressed that none of the personnel allocation was accessed.
“Not one naira of the personnel provision has been drawn. There is no personnel expenditure to recover because no expenditure ever occurred,” he added.
The Budget Office DG also disclosed that the council’s ₦200 million overhead allocation was never released because treasury warrants and cash backing were not issued.
Similarly, he said the ₦300 million capital allocation remained untouched because procurement processes required by law were never completed.
“No procurement reached the point at which expenditure would arise. No Ministerial Tenders Board approved a transaction. No Certificate of No Objection was issued. No treasury warrant followed. No treasury cash-backing followed,” Yakubu explained.
He maintained that Nigeria’s financial control system worked as intended by preventing any expenditure before funds could be accessed.
During the hearing, lawmakers questioned the legal basis for including the council in the national budget after examining what they described as a purported Act establishing the agency.
Committee member Abubakar Fulata argued that the document lacked key features of a valid Act of Parliament, including a gazette number, the signature of the Clerk of the National Assembly and presidential assent.
“The purported Act is very clear. It is not genuine because it did not carry the gazette number, it did not have the signature of the Clerk of the National Assembly and it did not carry the signature of Mr. President,” Fulata said.
Responding, Yakubu insisted that the Budget Office relied on official establishment approvals, recruitment waivers and salary directives issued by the appropriate government authorities.
Committee Chairman Yusuf Gagdi also defended the Budget Office, saying available evidence showed it acted based on documents presented by relevant government agencies.
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According to him, the investigation has now shifted to determining how forged documents allegedly entered official government processes.
“The question is whether the Budget Office allocated budget to this agency without the agency satisfying the requirements. The answer, based on the documents before us, is no,” Gagdi said.
He announced that the Accountant-General of the Federation is expected to appear before the committee on Monday to explain how the council obtained its budget code, adding that the panel hopes to conclude its investigation next week.
