Nigeria’s Accountant-General, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, tells a House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee probing the PFIPC that a letter purportedly from Nigeria’s State House helped the controversial Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PFIPC) gain official recognition. Ogunjimi says his office first interacted with the body in November 2024 after receiving a correspondence dated November 7, 2024, carrying a State House reference number. According to him, the letter requested creation of an administrative code for the council for budgeting, accounting and reporting purposes. He says his office followed established procedures, created the administrative code and communicated approval back to the State House while copying the Office of the Auditor-General.

The committee also examines subsequent administrative requests Ogunjimi says were received from the purported council, including requests related to self-accounting status, staff deployment, access to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and domiciliary accounts, and funding approvals. Ogunjimi states that even though some administrative steps were processed, no public funds were released to the organisation for salaries, overhead, capital or other special allocations. Premium Times also reports that the council’s application for a ₦27.4 billion establishment grant was rejected.