A massive financial investigation has revealed that the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) controversially disbursed nearly ₦2.6 billion in a single day on dozens of non-mandate projects, including solar installations and palace construction.
An explosive investigative report has uncovered massive fiscal anomalies at the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) in Ilorin, Kwara State, after the agricultural agency disbursed nearly ₦2.6 billion in a single day for projects entirely disconnected from its primary scientific mandate. A deep-dive tracking of federal transaction logs conducted by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) revealed that the management of the research institute authorized 23 separate, highly questionable payments to 22 different private companies on February 25, 2025. The systemic financial pipeline, which saw its top ten transactions alone swallow ₦1.7 billion, redirected critical state resources away from food preservation research and into rural solar streetlights, cash grants, and foreign logistical empowerment contracts.
A granular breakdown of the single-day spending spree showed that the stored products research institute funneled an astonishing ₦1.18 billion into solar and energy procurement contracts spread across just five highly localized projects. Among these energy transactions, the lowest-funded project was a ₦173.7 million contract for the procurement of “solar street lights for rural farm roads in Orhionmwon/Uhunmwode,” while the highest single payout was a staggering ₦435.1 million contract awarded for the installation of “solar street lights in Ozubulu, Anambra”—an area completely outside the agency’s geographical and institutional research focus. Furthermore, the agency released an aggregate of ₦793.7 million under the administrative guise of rural training, purchasing localized equipment, and executing controversial empowerment schemes. This specific bracket included twin payouts of ₦78 million each allocated for “women empowerment equipment in Imo” and the procurement of “mini buses and tricycles for youth empowerment in Imo North.”
Most shockingly, the public treasury logs exposed that the Ilorin-based agricultural agency went as far as authorizing ₦383.2 million for heavy civil construction contracts completely detached from post-harvest engineering or crop protection. In one of the most glaring infractions highlighted by financial transparency advocates, the NSPRI management paid a private firm, Brown Integrated Energy Services Limited, the sum of ₦156.2 million for the “construction of Akinrin Palace in Ekinrin‑Adde, Kogi State.” Civil society groups and anti-corruption watchdogs have expressed deep concern over the development, describing the payments as a textbook example of using critical agricultural research agencies to funnel constituency projects for federal lawmakers, even as the country faces deep food inflation and storage infrastructural decay.
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