The Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday said it had opened two foreign-currency domiciliary accounts for the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.
This is as the chief of staff to the president, Femi Gbajabiamila, appeared at the headquarters of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to testify in the ongoing investigation into the activities of the fictitious agency.
The apex bank’s admission came at the public hearing convened at the National Assembly Complex by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee investigating the existence and operations of the PFIPC, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi and inaugurated by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.
The PUNCH gathered that Monday’s hearing revealed critical gaps in the bureaucratic processes that allowed the fictitious agency to obtain the functional perks accorded to real government agencies.
Represented by the director of its banking services department, Hamisu Ibrahim, the CBN said the accounts, one in US dollars and the other in British pounds sterling, were opened following a mandate received from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
“On July 30, 2025, we received a mandate dated July 29, 2025, from the Office of the Accountant-General. We received the mandate to authorize two accounts, one a US dollar domiciliary account, the other a pound domiciliary account, for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council,” Ibrahim told the committee.
He explained the CBN’s verification process, saying, “The process of opening an account requires a mandate from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
“Once we receive that mandate, we perform all the necessary verifications to confirm that this mandate is actually coming from that office.
“The department that handles the mandate is different from the department that actually does the account opening,” he said.
Nevertheless, he noted that no one came to activate the accounts after they were opened.
“We did not receive any correspondence, mandate, signature, or mandate cards. We were not introduced to the authorizing or approving officers.
“Based on that, those accounts remain inactive, with zero balance. There have been no foreign exchange allocations.
“The accounts have maintained zero balance from inception to date and have never recorded any inflow or outflow,” Ibrahim said, adding that a statement of account had been attached to the committee’s records.
However, the CBN’s account directly contradicted an earlier submission by Accountant-General Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, who had claimed that no accounts were opened in the PFIPC’s name.
Also testifying before the committee, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, said her office never allocated any space to the PFIPC.
Records available to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service, she said, showed that the office space reportedly occupied by the council at the Federal Secretariat Phase III had been officially allocated to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, not to the fictitious council.
“There is speculation that the council occupied office space in the Federal Secretariat Phase III. We can state categorically that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation did not allocate any office space to the council.
“The office space indicated as the council’s official address forms part of the office accommodation allocated to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for the use of the OSGF and presidential bodies,” she said.
Walson-Jack, however, told the committee that during the 2025 Annual Manpower Budget Defense Exercise, the council submitted additional documents through one Patricia Akhigbe, including the appointment letter of its Director-General and details of its mandate, after which its request was processed alongside those of 87 other ministries, departments, and agencies.
An authorization for 314 positions was subsequently issued to the council, and a recruitment waiver followed days later, she explained.
