The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) has denied releasing any funds to the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, insisting that the body has not received budgetary releases.
A review of the 2026 Appropriation Act shows that the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council is listed under the Presidency with a budgetary allocation of about N1.3bn.
The breakdown includes roughly N800m for personnel expenses, N200m for overhead costs and approximately N300m earmarked for capital projects.
Reacting, the Director of Public Relations at the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), Bawa Mokwa, maintained that the organisation has not received any government funds and that no salaries have been paid.
He said: “You cannot open an account at the CBN without authorization from the Accountant General. The Accountant General will authorize them to open an account at the CBN.”
According to Mokwa, although the agency initiated the process of opening an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the account was never activated because the necessary documentation was not submitted.
He explained that opening a CBN account requires authorisation from the Accountant-General of the Federation before the process can be completed.
He said, “You cannot open an account at the CBN without authorization from the Accountant General. The Accountant General will authorize them to open an account at the CBN.”
Mokwa disclosed that the agency’s convener, Adeniyi Adeyemi, approached the OAGF with an appointment letter, but the document reportedly related to an already existing government agency rather than the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.
He said the account-opening process commenced based on the document presented, but the account remained inactive because the names of authorised signatories were never submitted.
As a result, he noted that there was no operational account through which the Office of the Accountant General could disburse government funds.
Mokwa stressed that no money has been paid into the account, describing it as non-operational since the process was never completed.
He also dismissed claims that the agency had received budgetary releases, explaining that although provisions exist in the 2026 budget, the council has not yet met the conditions required to access the funds.
The OAGF spokesperson further denied reports that the agency had employed staff or paid salaries, insisting that no recruitment had taken place through the procedures prescribed for federal government establishments.
He explained that before any federal agency can recruit personnel and place them on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), it must first secure approvals from the Federal Character Commission, the Budget Office and the Federal Civil Service Commission.
Only after those approvals are obtained, he said, can the names of employees be forwarded to the Office of the Accountant-General for enrolment on the federal payroll and salary payment.
According to Mokwa, none of these statutory requirements has been fulfilled, making it impossible for the agency to recruit staff or receive government funded salary payments.
