PFIPC Scandal: We Received Mandate From OAGF To Open Two Domiciliary Accounts For Phantom Agency

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday confirmed that  accounts were  actually opened for the disputed Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC.

The Source reports that the Office of the Accountant -General of the Federation, in the wake of the PFIPC scandal, had insisted that the phantom interventionist agency does not have accounts at the apex financial institution in the country as its self-acclaimed Director -General DG Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi could not perfect all the conditionalities precedent for the opening of domiciliary accounts.

The Presidency, a couple weeks ago had, in a statement, accused Prince Adeyemi of deceiving some Government officials into according his fake agency official status, including an office space, a waiver for the employment of staff, and a directive from the Office of the Accountant -General of the Federation, AGF, for the CBN to open domiciliary accounts for the agency.

However in a move that sharply contrasted with the position of the Presidency, the OAGF maintained that the process of opening accounts for the agency was stalled following the inability of the the DG, Prince Adeyemi to present all the necessary documents needed for the account opening.

But speaking at the occasion of the inauguration of the National Assembly Adhoc Investigative Committee  on Monday, Hamisu Abdullahi ,a Director at the CBN, informed that the regulatory financial institution received an official nod from the OAGF to open two domiciliary accounts for the phantom agency.

According to Abdullahi who stood in for the Governor of the CBN, while one of the accounts opened on July 30, 2025, was dollar- denominated, the second was in pounds Sterling.

This is as he explained that the accounts were not able to be fully activated owing to the failure of the officials of the agency to avail the bank of the names of the signatories to the accounts.

“The process for opening the account requires a mandate from the office of the Accountant -General of the Federation AGF. So once we receive that mandate, we perform all the necessary verification to confirm that this mandate is actually coming from the office of the Accountant -General.

“So once we confirm that, we have some internal procedures, too, which we follow to open those accounts.

“On the 30th of July 2025, we received a mandate dated 29th July 2025, from the office of the Accountant -General of the Federation to the Central Bank of Nigeria to open two domiciliary accounts for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.

“Based on that mandate, we did the normal verification to confirm the genuineness of the mandate and also process the account opening.

“And two accounts were actually opened: a domiciliary account, one dollar account and one pound sterling account for the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.

“Those two accounts remain inactive with zero balance and have never been operated.

“There have been no foreign exchange allocations, no remittances, no inflows and no outflows. The accounts have maintained zero balance from inception to date”, Hamisu stated.

Further speaking, the CBN Director emphasized that in all the processes, the bank never had  direct dealings with Adeyemi, or any of the officials of the agency as the law only allows it to interact with the OAGF even in matters relating to Ministries and MDAs .