KEY POINTS
- Adeosun said running the federal payroll against the BVN database uncovered 45,000 ghost workers after biometric efforts stalled because the Police and Army refused to cooperate with centralized systems
- Many cases involved a single BVN linked to multiple salaries rather than organized crime networks; others were dead or transferred workers still drawing pay through bureaucratic inertia
- She reinforced the technology with a human accountability measure, requiring Permanent Secretaries to personally sign off on their agencies’ payrolls to create a traceable chain of responsibility
Former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun revealed Sunday that running Nigeria’s federal payroll against the Bank Verification Number database exposed 45,000 BVN ghost workers, cracking a fraud that biometric efforts had failed to address for years.
Speaking at the Citadel School of Government Dialogue in Lagos, Adeosun said the federal payroll was the government’s single largest expenditure, but biometric clean-up drives had repeatedly stalled because paramilitary agencies, including the Police and Army, refused to cooperate with centralized systems. Her team sidestepped the problem by using the existing BVN database rather than launching fresh biometric collection efforts.
One BVN, seven salaries: the fraud in plain sight
“We ran the federal payroll against the BVN database, and the result was staggering: we found 45,000 ghost workers,” she said. Indeed, Adeosun clarified that many BVN ghost workers cases involved no organized criminal network. In several instances, a single person’s BVN appeared against seven different salaries. Meanwhile, others involved employees who had died or transferred but remained on the payroll through sheer bureaucratic inertia.
To reinforce the technology with human accountability, Adeosun required Permanent Secretaries to personally sign off on their agencies’ payrolls, creating a traceable chain of responsibility that made fraudulent entries harder to conceal.
Data and law must reinforce each other
Adeosun also urged current and emerging leaders to embrace data tools, arguing that evidence-based governance is the only effective defense against entrenched fraud. “Data is hard to argue with,” she said. “If you come armed with data and graphs, you can take on anybody.”
Moreover, the dialogue ended with a consensus that such reforms need legislative anchoring to outlast changes in administration. Pastor Tunde Bakare praised Adeosun for returning to public life with her integrity intact after a protracted legal challenge. “It is highly commendable that she came out as minister and no houses or stolen funds were traced to her,” Bakare said.
