Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance has dismissed reports describing a $12.4 billion discrepancy in the country’s external accounts as missing money, saying the figure represents a statistical adjustment rather than evidence of stolen or withheld oil revenue.
In a statement signed by Maryann Duke-Okon, senior special assistant on communications to the minister of finance, the ministry said media reports misrepresented the World Bank’s October 2026 Nigeria Development Update.
The World Bank recorded net errors and omissions of negative $12.4 billion in Nigeria’s balance of payments for the first half of 2026.
The ministry explained that the figure reflects differences between independently collected financial data and does not establish that funds are missing.
It said the World Bank suggested that unrepatriated oil proceeds could account for part of the discrepancy but did not identify any specific amount, company or cargo.
The ministry also cited a $12 billion current account surplus in the first half of 2026 and an increase in gross foreign reserves from $45.5 billion at the end of 2025 to $53.8 billion by the end of August 2026.
It attributed possible discrepancies to factors including informal remittances, under-recorded cross-border trade, delayed export payments and provisional data.
The ministry said it would work with the Central Bank of Nigeria and other agencies to improve the recording of external transactions, urging journalists to seek expert clarification before interpreting statistical discrepancies as evidence of missing funds.
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