The CBN's 2025 accounts deceived the President and the National Assembly
Jim Obazee, President Tinubu's Special Investigator, says the Central Bank of Nigeria's published 2025 financial statements are misleading and should be withdrawn and reissued. A House committee is investigating, and the auditors missed its deadline.
A presidential appointee is publicly accusing Nigeria's central bank of deceptive financial reporting. Separately, the civil society group SERAP has sued the bank over funds flagged by the Auditor-General. Neither set of allegations has been tested in court or by a regulator.
Key claims
- Obazee: the CBN deceived the President and the National Assembly by releasing summary statements instead of full audited accounts for 2024 and 2025.
- Obazee: the 2024 summary reported other operating income of N12.176 trillion, of which N11.602 trillion was an unrealised foreign exchange revaluation gain, which he says gives a misleading picture of performance.
- Obazee: the 2025 summary shows earnings management and fraudulent financial reporting, and should be withdrawn and reissued.
- SERAP: the CBN must account for $6.23 million in alleged election-related funds and more than N1.63 trillion in other funds flagged in the Auditor-General's 2023 report.
What the evidence says so far
According to The Liberation News, which republished an Inside Business report, Obazee cites the joint auditors (EY and KPMG). In his account, they said the summary is not a substitute for the full statements, which received an unmodified opinion with an emphasis of matter on non-compliance with section 38 of the CBN Act. An unmodified opinion means the auditors did not qualify the full accounts. This is relevant to the fraud allegation.
TimesNG reports that KPMG, EY and the Financial Reporting Council missed the House Committee on Delegated Legislation's Oct 6 deadline to submit the 2024 and 2025 statements. The CBN asked for two more weeks and was given until Oct 13. The outcome had not been reported in the sources reviewed.
Punch reports that SERAP filed suit FHC/ABJ/CS/2450/2026 at the Federal High Court in Abuja, based on Volume II of the Auditor-General's 2023 report. No hearing date has been fixed.
Sources
Source notes
Coverage leans heavily on Obazee's own statements, and the CBN's side is missing. A CBN rebuttal was referenced in search results but could not be opened, so it is not represented here. That is the most important gap. The Liberation News is an aggregator republishing another outlet and is a weak source. A Central Banking report on the SERAP suit is paywalled and was not used. The CBN's published statements themselves were not reviewed.