The Central Bank of Nigeria has told a House of Representatives probe that it opened two dormant domiciliary accounts for the disputed Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council on the authorisation of the Accountant-General’s office, deepening questions over how the “phantom” agency gained official recognition.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told a House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the “phantom” Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) that it received authorisation from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) to open two domiciliary accounts for the council.
Daily Trust reports that the revelation comes as the ICPC on Monday questioned Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, over allegations by purported PFIPC Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who claims he paid N400 million to Gbajabiamila through the late Babatunde Dolapo Tanimola to secure his appointment. Gbajabiamila has denied the claims and filed a N15 billion defamation suit against Adeyemi.
Over N1.3 billion was allocated to the PFIPC in the approved 2026 budget, raising questions over how the fictitious council escaped National Assembly scrutiny.
A CBN director, Hamisu Abdullahi, representing the CBN Governor, told the committee the bank received a mandate dated July 29, 2025, from the OAGF to open a dollar and a pound sterling domiciliary account for the “Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council,” both opened on July 30, 2025.
“Those two accounts remain inactive with zero balance and have never been operated,” Abdullahi said, adding there had been no foreign exchange allocations, remittances, inflows or outflows linked to the accounts.
He explained that the CBN does not deal directly with MDAs on account matters except through the OAGF.
Separately, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack, told the committee her office has no constitutional responsibility for establishing government agencies, though it approves administrative structures. She disclosed the council’s request for structural approval, submitted August 6, 2025, was not granted due to missing documents.
She said the council had, however, secured approval for 314 staff positions — 14 existing officers and 300 additional roles — during the 2025 manpower budget defence, processed alongside 87 other MDAs, before irregularities were later discovered in the council’s submitted legal instrument.
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