Every SERAP figure against the CBN is in the 2023 audit; the N262.86bn it says was spent is the CBN's own figure for unpaid Anchor Borrowers loans

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) said on Sunday, 11 October 2026, that it has sued the Central Bank of Nigeria at the Federal High Court in Abuja over what it calls a failure to account for US$6.23 million in "allegedly diverted or unaccounted-for election funds" and over N1.63 trillion in other public funds. Every figure SERAP uses is printed in the Auditor-General for the Federation's audit of the bank, and its N1.63 trillion re-adds exactly. But the naira sums are loans the bank says it is still collecting, and one of them, N262.86 billion that SERAP says the bank "spent" on the Anchor Borrowers' Programme, is the bank's own figure for what farmers' loans still owed when it answered the auditors.

SERAP's statement names its source as Volume II of the Auditor-General's 2023 Annual Report on Non-compliance, published on 7 August 2026. Vero Record downloaded that volume, a 434-page scanned PDF, from the Auditor-General's website, where the file is dated 7 August 2026, and read the Central Bank's section at pages 756 to 764. It covers 1 January to 31 December 2023 and raises seven issues. SERAP's naira total is made of three of them: N1,252,095,444,724.82 in state intervention loans, N116,179,000,000.00 lent to distressed and liquidated banks and N262,859,473,249.81 under the Anchor Borrowers' Programme. They add to N1,631,133,917,974.63, which SERAP rounds to N1.63 trillion. The dollar figure is a fourth issue.

That issue, headed "Alleged fraud at CBN Abuja Branch Office (=US$6,230,000.00)", is the only one in the section that concerns a possible loss of money rather than a balance still owed (pages 760 and 761). The auditors wrote that the bank's own Internal Audit Department reported the alleged fraud during an audit of foreign exchange payments, that it disclosed the payment was made "based on a request for election funding purportedly made by the immediate past President", that the approval of "the erstwhile Governor of the Bank was purportedly obtained", and that the bank's investigation report was not made available to the audit team. The bank's printed reply is one sentence: it "is carrying out a detailed and holistic investigation into the event and the findings shall be released in due course." The auditors rated that unsatisfactory. SERAP quotes this issue accurately. The report names no one, and while the finding speaks of an "alleged fraud", the recommendation that follows calls it "the fraudulent payment"; the report does not say what established that.

The largest item is Issue 1, "Outstanding principal balance from CBN interventions loan granted to States" (page 756). The auditors say N1,814,380,639,812.84 was disbursed to states in nine interventions "in the year 2023", that N562,285,195,095.03 had been repaid as principal by 31 December 2023, and that N1,252,095,444,724.82 remained outstanding. Vero Record's subtraction of the two printed figures gives N1,252,095,444,717.81, which is N7.01 less than the report's total. All three figures are also written out in words, so the gap is in the report, not in the reading of a scan. It does not affect SERAP's rounding.

The bank answered that most of these facilities have repayment plans running over several years and "are still ongoing and are not past due", and that recovery was slowed when the Federal Ministry of Finance suspended Irrevocable Standing Payment Orders on state repayments (pages 756 and 757). It said repayments had risen "by over N170 billion" to N734,085,816,033.53 by the second quarter of 2025. That is consistent with the report's own figures: N734,085,816,033.53 less N562,285,195,095.03 is N171,800,620,938.50. On the same base, the unpaid principal at mid-2025 would be N1,080,294,823,779.31; the report does not print that number. The auditors still rated the reply unsatisfactory and recommended that the Governor "recover and remit" the full N1.25 trillion to the Treasury.

The Anchor Borrowers' item is where SERAP's description and the audit part ways (pages 758 to 760). SERAP's suit papers, as it quotes them, say the bank "spent over N262 billion" on the programme and that "the money remain in the hands of some Anchors". The audit's heading figure is different: N386,168,028,870.49 was "the outstanding balance of Anchor Borrowers' Programme as at 31st December, 2023", of which N322,106,101,921.74 fell due by 31 December 2024 after the loans were restructured, and it is that N386.17 billion the auditors describe as being "in the hands of some Anchors". The auditors also said the number of beneficiaries and the programme's impact were not provided. N262,859,473,249.81 appears first in the bank's reply, which says the balance had fallen to that sum "as at the time of this response" and claims recoveries of over 75 per cent. The auditors then used the bank's lower figure in their recommendation. So N262.86 billion is not money spent; it is what the bank says borrowers still owed. Had SERAP used the audit's heading figure, its total would have been N1,754,442,473,595.31.

The bank's own audited accounts can be set against these numbers. Its summary financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024, signed by Governor Olayemi Cardoso, audited jointly by Ernst and Young and KPMG and listed on the bank's website under the date 2 May 2025, list loans and receivables in note 17 (page 48). In the bank's own column, the Anchor Borrowers' programme stands at N408,801 million at 31 December 2023 and N296,830 million at 31 December 2024, a fall of N111,971 million, or 27.4 per cent, in a year. The end-2023 figure is about N22.63 billion higher than the audit's N386.17 billion, which may reflect a different basis such as accrued interest; neither document reconciles the two. The accounts do support the direction of the bank's reply: the balance was shrinking, and the N262.86 billion it reported later is lower again.

The same note bears on Issue 2, "Doubtful recoveries of loans granted to distressed and liquidated banks (=N116,179,000,000.00)" (pages 757 and 758). The auditors took that figure from page 120 of the bank's 2022 financial statements, the "Other Loans" line, and said the 2023 audited or draft statements and a schedule of recoveries were not presented to them. Their recommendation is to "justify" the sum, "being non-provision of documents", and to recover and remit it. The bank replied that the facilities "remain unchanged (N116.19 billion) in 2023" and that it was working with the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation on recovery through the liquidation process. The 2024 statements bear that out: the bank's "Other loans" line is N116,187 million at both 31 December 2023 and 31 December 2024. On the bank's own books, the line did not change in 2023 or in 2024. N116,187 million is N8 million more than the audit's 2022 figure; Vero Record could not obtain the 2022 statements, whose download from the bank's site is blocked to automated requests, to see why.

One of SERAP's smaller claims does not match the report. SERAP says the bank failed to account for "the long overdue seven (7) boxes" of currency notes awaiting examination. The audit, at the bank's Umuahia branch, counted "seventy seven (77) boxes" at 31 December 2023, all older than three months (pages 761 and 762), and attaches no naira value to them. The bank answered that it processes such notes in order and that the risk of "mismanagement of funds" did not apply because notes awaiting examination "are not subject to expenditure". On unserviceable vehicles at the Lagos branch, the bank said its asset disposal committee had begun the appraisal process. For the bullion lorry at the Abeokuta branch, the report prints "No response." All three replies were rated unsatisfactory.

SERAP's word "unaccounted" is not the auditors' word for any of the naira sums. The report calls them an "outstanding principal balance", "doubtful recoveries" and an "excessive outstanding balance". The phrases SERAP quotes about money being "diverted to private purposes" come from the "Risks" heading, which in this report lists what could go wrong, not what the auditors found; the same heading under the Abuja branch issue reads "Fraudulent payments". The findings themselves are that loans were unrecovered, that documents, beneficiary numbers and an investigation report were not produced, and, in one case, that the bank's internal auditors had flagged an alleged fraud.

Vero Record has not seen the court papers. According to SERAP, the suit, numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/2450/2026, was filed on Friday, 9 October 2026, by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare, Kehinde Oyewumi, Andrew Nwankwo and Kelechi Anwu. It asks for orders of mandamus compelling the bank to account for the sums; to disclose the purposes, beneficiaries, repayment status and the findings of its internal investigation into the election funding payment; to identify the officers who approved and paid out the funds; and to disclose records on the currency notes and vehicles. SERAP says no hearing date has been fixed. The suit follows a letter, dated 26 September 2026 according to press reports, that gave the bank seven days to account.

What the record supports is this. The US$6.23 million is an alleged fraud reported by the bank's own internal auditors, which the bank says it is investigating and whose investigation report the Auditor-General did not see. The N1.63 trillion is three loan balances, which the bank says it is recovering; its own audited accounts show one of them falling and another unchanged. These are audit queries with the bank's replies printed beside them, still open when the report was published. They are not findings of theft, and the report does not say any court or anti-corruption agency has made one.

What this rests on

Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, 2023 Annual Report on Non-compliance (Vol. II), Section 19 (Federal Government Owned Enterprises), Central Bank of Nigeria, Issues 1 to 7, printed pp.756-764 (PDF pp.403-411), period 1 January to 31 December 2023; scanned PDF downloaded from oaugf.ng (server Last-Modified 7 August 2026), read by OCR and checked against page images. Central Bank of Nigeria, Summary Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2024, note 17 Loans and receivables, p.48 (Bank columns). Arithmetic: SERAP total 1,252,095,444,724.82 + 116,179,000,000.00 + 262,859,473,249.81 = 1,631,133,917,974.63 (N1.63trn). With the audit's ABP heading figure instead: 1,252,095,444,724.82 + 116,179,000,000.00 + 386,168,028,870.49 = 1,754,442,473,595.31. Issue 1: 1,814,380,639,812.84 - 562,285,195,095.03 = 1,252,095,444,717.81, against 1,252,095,444,724.82 printed (difference 7.01). Bank reply: 734,085,816,033.53 - 562,285,195,095.03 = 171,800,620,938.50 ("over N170 billion"); 1,814,380,639,812.84 - 734,085,816,033.53 = 1,080,294,823,779.31 (Vero Record's derivation, same base assumed). ABP: 386,168,028,870.49 - 262,859,473,249.81 = 123,308,555,620.68; 386,168,028,870.49 - 322,106,101,921.74 = 64,061,926,948.75 not yet due at end-2024. Accounts: ABP 408,801m - 296,830m = 111,971m; 111,971 / 408,801 = 27.4%; 408,801,000,000 - 386,168,028,870.49 = 22,632,971,129.51. Other loans 116,187m (2023) = 116,187m (2024); 116,187m - 116,179m = 8m. Dates: 11 October 2026 is a Sunday, so SERAP's "last Friday" is 9 October 2026.

What this does not establish

The report does not establish that any money was stolen or diverted; "diverted to private purposes" is listed under Risks, not findings. It does not say who received the US$6.23 million, names no governor or official, does not show what turned the finding's "alleged fraud" into the recommendation's "fraudulent payment", and does not link the payment to any prosecution. It does not name the nine state interventions, explain the N7.01 gap in Issue 1, or show the bank's appendices (for example Appendix 4 on facilities not past due), which are not printed. The bank's claim of over 75 per cent recovery on Anchor Borrowers and the date of its N262.86bn figure are not tested in the report. The summary accounts do not label the "Other loans" line as facilities to distressed banks; that identification rests on the audit's description of the 2022 line and on the match with the bank's N116.19bn reply. The accounts' N408,801m Anchor Borrowers balance is before an unitemised loss allowance and may be measured on a different basis from the audit's N386.17bn. Vero Record could not obtain the CBN's 2022 financial statements (download blocked) and did not read SERAP's originating summons; the suit's number, filing date and reliefs are as SERAP reports them. The 26 September date of SERAP's earlier letter is from press reports.