A financial audit by OOM Professional Services has uncovered discrepancies amounting to approximately N101.17 billion in revenue remittances by the Nigeria Customs Service, prompting
the Federation Account Allocation Committee to call for a full recovery and redistribution of the funds to the rightful recipients.

A document from the FAAC Post Mortem Sub-Committee, obtained on Monday has revealed that fund misclassifications and delays by commercial banks in remitting revenue significantly disrupted the statutory revenue sharing process, depriving sub-national governments of their due allocations, according to The PUNCH.

The firm, which began operations in 2008 as Lanre Ogunwale & Co before rebranding as OOM Professional Services, was commissioned by the Forum of Commissioners of Finance to carry out a comprehensive audit of Nigeria Customs Service remittances into the Federation Account for the 2022–2023 fiscal period.

The audit findings were presented at the FAAC plenary session held on May 16, 2025, where the Chairman of the Forum briefed members on the irregularities uncovered by the consultant.

Founded in 2008 as Lanre Ogunwale & Co and later rebranded as OOM Professional Services, the firm was commissioned by the Forum of Commissioners of Finance to carry out an in-depth review of Nigeria Customs Service remittances into the Federation Account for the 2022–2023 fiscal year.

The review culminated in a report presented at the FAAC plenary session on May 16, 2025, where the Forum’s Chairman disclosed the irregularities uncovered by the consultant to committee members.

After deliberations, the Federal Ministry of Finance instructed the FAAC Post Mortem Sub-Committee to verify the findings and submit a report with recommendations.

A follow-up stakeholders’ meeting was convened on July 10, 2025, at Brick Wall Hotel in Asokoro, Abuja, with representatives from the Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Central Bank of Nigeria, and the FAAC Secretariat in attendance.

At the meeting, the consultant re-presented its findings, which were unanimously accepted by all participating agencies.

“The FIRS and NCS representatives were in agreement with the position of the consultant. It was established that the findings of the consultant contained in the report were accurate,” the document noted.

A key finding in the report was the incorrect classification of N82.04 billion (N82,037,823,474.76) as Import Duty rather than Import VAT. The amount was mistakenly remitted to the Federation Account instead of the VAT Pool Account by four commercial banks: Guaranty Trust Bank, Globus Bank, Taj Bank, and Nova Merchant Bank.

“The remittance of Import VAT into the Federation Account as Import Levy has significantly reduced the share of the sub-nationals due to the application of the vertical revenue sharing formula rather than the VAT Sharing formula,” the document noted.

In addition to the VAT misclassification, the report uncovered that N19.13 billion (N19,130,495,656.89) was wrongly paid into the Federal Government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund instead of the Federation Account. Of the total N22.05 billion (N22,047,725,350.91) initially assumed to belong to the CRF, only N2.92 billion was actually due there.

“The NCS has confirmed that the sum of N19,130,495,656.89 was Federation Account revenue comprising Import Duty, Fees, Excise, and CET. While only N2,917,229,704.49, comprising CISS, ETLS, Iron Levy, Port Levy, and Wheat Grain Levy, was CRF revenue,” the document revealed.

Combined, the two misclassified sums brought the total amount of wrongly posted funds to N101.17 billion (N101,168,319,131.64).

“The amounts posted in error were N82,037,823,474.76 as Import Duty and N19,130,495,656.89 to CRF, which totalled N101,168,319,131.64,” the committee noted.

The sub-committee further noted that these errors impacted not only the revenue distribution among the tiers of government but also the statutory cost of collection allocated to agencies like the FIRS, Nigeria Customs Service, and the North-East Development Commission.