The World Bank may withhold approval of a $10.4 million loan request from the Federal Government of Nigeria, citing substandard audit reports that failed to meet required international auditing standards.
This was disclosed in the World Bank’s June 2025 restructuring paper addressed to Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF). The sum in question forms part of the $103 million Fiscal Governance and Institutions Project (FGIP), an initiative designed to strengthen public financial management in Nigeria, particularly at the federal level.
Initiated by the World Bank in 2018, with financing agreements signed in 2019, the FGIP is set to conclude on 30 June 2025.
According to the document, the FMF requested the cancellation of $0.9 million in unutilised Technical Assistance (TA) funds, along with $9.5 million linked to 10 performance-based conditions (PBCs) that are now unlikely to be fulfilled before the project’s closure.
“These intermediate results (IRs), to be implemented by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF), were deemed unachieved by the Independent Verification Agent (IVA), as the audit reports submitted failed to meet required international standards,” the document stated.
One of the targets was the deployment of a National Budget Portal by the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF), intended to publish capital budgets for the Federal Government and at least 20 states. The portal had a $1 million allocation, but the BOF reportedly failed to provide evidence of its implementation.
Similarly, the implementation of the Revenue Assurance and Billing System (RABS), which had a $4.5 million allocation, was assessed as underperforming. Two associated intermediate results (2.5 and 2.6) were submitted for verification but were deemed “not achieved” in the sixth IVA report.
The report also highlighted concerns regarding the Treasury Single Account (TSA) framework. Only 27 out of 55 Federal Government-Owned Entities (FGOEs) had established TSA sub-accounts for foreign revenues, and no mechanism was in place to ensure automatic transfer of these funds to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), as mandated.
It stated: “There was evidence for only 27 of the 55 FGOEs having set up TSA sub-accounts for foreign-earned revenues, and no automatic split and transfer of these revenues to the CRF was in place.”
The document further indicated that IRs 2.7 to 2.9 will remain unmet before project closure due to multiple delays, including, contract management issues as the FMF is working to expand the RABS implementation consortium to include an additional vendor; and outstanding indemnity agreement. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is awaiting an indemnity letter from the FMF to ensure it is not held liable for any errors arising from the automatic transfer of funds from TSA sub-accounts to the CRF.
As a result of these setbacks, full implementation of RABS is now projected for August 2025—after the FGIP’s scheduled conclusion.
