The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, has told the House of Representatives that no funds were released or spent on the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), despite a N1.32 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
Appearing before the House Ad-Hoc Committee investigating the council’s establishment and funding, Yakubu said the Budget Office neither created the council nor approved its establishment, recruitment or salary payments. He explained that although budgetary provisions were made based on official government approvals, the mandatory financial clearance required for expenditure was never issued.
Yakubu said the office independently reduced the council’s proposed personnel budget and withheld financial clearance, preventing recruitment, payroll enrollment, and salary payments.
He added that the N200 million overhead and N300 million capital allocations also remained untouched because the necessary treasury approvals and procurement processes were never completed.
Lawmakers questioned the authenticity of documents used to support the council’s budget after identifying what they described as a forged Act establishing the agency.
The committee Chairman Yusuf Gagdi, however, said the Budget Office acted on documents provided by relevant government agencies, adding that the investigation has now shifted to determining how the alleged forged documents entered official government processes.
