The Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday intensified its oversight of federal revenue-generating agencies, directing the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to reconcile discrepancies in deductions from NAFDAC’s operating surplus.
The committee also gave the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority 14 days to regularise its financial records or face sanctions, including the suspension of budget releases.
The directives were issued during an investigative hearing on the remittance of internally generated revenue and operating surplus by Ministries, Departments and Agencies into the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the 2023 to 2025 financial years.
The probe forms part of the Senate’s ongoing efforts to enforce compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act and other public finance laws amid growing concerns over revenue leakages and the failure of some government agencies to fully remit funds due to the Federal Government.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Sani Musa, said the reconciliation became necessary after conflicting figures emerged between NAFDAC and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission over deductions from the agency’s operating surplus.
NAFDAC told the committee that it generated ₦18.73bn in 2023, ₦29.85bn in 2024 and ₦39.6bn in 2025, indicating a steady increase in its internally generated revenue despite operational challenges.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, explained that although the agency had remitted about ₦3.9bn as operating surplus between 2007 and 2023, changes introduced under the Treasury Single Account policy in January 2024 had significantly affected its finances.
She said the adoption of a zero-balance TSA arrangement resulted in deductions being made from payments received by the agency before it could access the funds needed to carry out its statutory responsibilities.
According to Adeyeye, about ₦21bn deducted directly from payments made by clients for regulatory services had yet to be fully refunded, noting that only ₦13bn had so far been returned.
She disclosed that President Bola Tinubu approved the refund of the deductions in August 2025 and also approved the removal of NAFDAC from the list of revenue-generating agencies, although the approvals were yet to be fully implemented.
Responding, Musa advised the agency to forward the presidential approval to the committee to facilitate the necessary legislative action.
The committee subsequently directed the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to nominate a senior official to work with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and NAFDAC to reconcile the agency’s accounts.
While commending NAFDAC for improving its revenue performance despite the challenges posed by the TSA policy, Musa stressed that funds legitimately belonging to government agencies should be released promptly after all statutory deductions had been made.
During the hearing, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan called on NAFDAC to deepen research into alternative medicine, arguing that Nigeria possesses abundant indigenous medicinal plants that could support the growth of a local pharmaceutical industry.
In response, Adeyeye said the agency already operates a regulatory framework for traditional medicines but lacks adequate funding to undertake the clinical trials required for international acceptance.
She also dismissed claims that medicines circulating in Nigeria were only 30 per cent effective, insisting that mandatory bioequivalence studies had significantly strengthened quality assurance.
The committee also queried the financial records of the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority after the Fiscal Responsibility Commission informed lawmakers that the agency had failed to submit audited financial statements since 2022 and had unresolved financial liabilities.
The Acting Managing Director of the authority, Mr Ayo Oyano, told the committee that the agency generated ₦72.755m in 2023 and remitted ₦18.188m, representing 25 per cent of the revenue.
However, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission maintained that as a fully funded Federal Government agency, the authority was legally required to remit 100 per cent of its internally generated revenue into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The commission further disclosed that the authority had yet to submit audited financial statements for 2023, 2024 and 2025 and still had an outstanding liability of ₦71.5m dating back to 2022.
Musa reminded the agency that its personnel, overhead and capital expenditures were already funded through annual appropriations approved by the National Assembly and therefore had no legal basis for retaining any portion of its internally generated revenue.
Although Oyano argued that part of the revenue was used to maintain tractors and other equipment deployed for farmers, the committee rejected the explanation, insisting that all revenues collected by fully funded agencies must first be paid into the Treasury Single Account before being transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Senator Aliyu Wadada supported the committee’s position, stressing that no government agency has the authority to spend internally generated revenue without lawful appropriation.
The committee subsequently directed the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority to reconcile its accounts with the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission within 14 days.
Musa warned that failure to comply would attract legislative sanctions, including the suspension of the agency’s budget releases.
He said the investigation was aimed at strengthening accountability, transparency and compliance with statutory revenue remittance obligations across federal agencies, warning that the Senate would not hesitate to invoke its constitutional oversight powers against any agency that failed to honour its invitations or properly account for public funds.