Confirmed! Nigeria Content Board Spends Over N7b On Consultancy, Including N580m On London Training, Others
As the allegations against the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) following the reported spending of some funds to the tune of N7.7 billion ($4.7 million) without the necessary approval from authorised levels as stipulated in the relevant procurement protocols and policies continuous to gather momentum, the claims seems not to be far from the truth.
Recall that a leading online news medium, Sahara Reporters, had on Wednesday 12th February, 2025, reported that Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, faces allegations of approving the diversion of public funds from the Nigerian Content Development Fund’s US dollar account at the Central Bank of Nigeria into questionable contracts.
In the publication titled, “Nigerian Content Board NCDMB Boss Ogbe Spends N7Billion On Consultancy, Over N580Million On 5-Day London Training, Logistics, Allowances file”, Sahara Reporters alleged that N7.7 billion ($4.7 million) was expended by the Board without following due process for approval.
According to Sahara Reporters, the ES endorsed three requests made by Fatima Bashir Mohammed, who purportedly leveraged her previous role at the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission in Nigeria (ICPC) to authorize payments to a consulting firm, S.B Capital Partners & Advisory Limited, owned by Stephen Bawa, adding that these payments significantly exceeded the approval limits, even for the Ministerial Tenders Board (MTB).
In a swift reaction, NCDMB issued a rebuttal on Thursday 13th February, 2025, describing the publication by Sahara Reporters and the allegations therein as false, malicious, and misleading.
“The publication is riddled with falsehoods, gross inaccuracies and baseless inferences. We wish to state that neither the Board nor the Executive Secretary spent the amount stated in the headline of the referenced statement”.
However, a source, on Friday told Spark News Daily that the publication by Sahara Reporters and the allegations therein are all true, confirming that the payment of N7.7 billion ($4.7 million) for consultancy was made in 2024 through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The documents made available by the source and cited by Spark News Daily, revealed three letters from NCDMB mandating Nigeria’s apex bank to pay the said amount for contracts for consultancy in respect to financial services for recovery.
The letters addressed to the Director, Banking Service Department, Central Bank of Nigeria were titled, “PAYMENT MANDATE IN RESPECT OF FINANCIAL CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR THE RECOVERY OF NCDF 1% DEDUCTED BY OAGF FROM OUR DOMICILIARY ACCOUNT #3000135904’.
The first two letters for payment of US$ 3,062,089.52 and US$ 1,531,044.75, were dated 22nd July, 2024 and received by CBN on 23 July 2024, while the third letter dated August 27th 2024 and received on 28 August 2024, had US$ 1,636,846.42.
The source further stated that Sahara Reporter did not get the correct figures, saying the actually figure is US$ 6,229,980.69 million amounting to N10,267,918,138.5 billion (1,650/US$1).
The source noted that the approval for such amounts is not within the ambit of the Board’s Executive Secretary, but the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
See documents below:
