For years, Nigeria has been quietly hemorrhaging billions and the culprits aren’t always the ones you expect.
At the heart of this troubling revelation is employment fraud. A silent, persistent crime draining over N40 billion annually since as far back as 2007. This was the stark reality laid bare by the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, during a meeting with the Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, on Friday.
Olukoyede’s words weren’t just figures; they painted a picture of a nation bleeding from within. Before joining the EFCC, his independent research into employment fraud uncovered an unsettling cycle of mutual deception between employers and employees.
“I discovered that Nigeria was losing over N40 billion every year to employment fraud,” Olukoyede disclosed, his voice weighted with concern.
But the revelations didn’t stop there. Once he became Chief of Staff at the EFCC, what they found in the government’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) was even more shocking.
“We found that many individuals were receiving salaries without being employed by the government,” he revealed. “Our intervention helped save billions of naira, but the fight is far from over. Criminals keep developing new tactics, and we must keep innovating to counter them.”
Ghost workers. False payrolls. Phantom salaries. These aren’t just numbers on paper. They represent funds that could have gone into hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Instead, they disappear into the pockets of fraudsters exploiting a broken system.
But beyond the public sector lies an equally troubling reality in the private sector. The Chief Executive Officer of NECA, Adewale Oyerinde, sounded the alarm on the staggering losses businesses are suffering.
“The quantum of money that has been lost in the private sector in recent times is startling,” Oyerinde said. “We are here to seek collaboration with the EFCC to tackle this issue head-on.”
NECA’s call for joint action with the EFCC isn’t just about damage control. It is about survival. With the rise of money laundering, cybercrime, and identity theft, businesses are under siege. And the numbers don’t lie: the losses are mounting, and the need for a united front has never been more urgent.
Olukoyede didn’t mince words about the stakes.
“You don’t need a soothsayer or a prophet to tell anyone in Nigeria that our major problems are financial crimes and corruption,” he said. “They are the greatest obstacles to our economic development — an albatross and a cankerworm to our progress. And that is exactly our mandate.”