Former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has detailed how the Federal Government leveraged technology to eliminate massive payroll fraud, revealing that the integration of the Bank Verification Number, BVN, led to the discovery of 45,000 ‘ghost workers.’
Speaking at the Citadel School of Government Dialogue series in Lagos, Adeosun explained that before the intervention, the federal payroll was the government’s single largest expenditure, riddled with inefficiencies that traditional biometric efforts had failed to solve.
She noted that previous attempts at cleaning the payroll through biometrics had frequently stalled, particularly due to resistance from paramilitary groups such as the Police and Army, who refused to cooperate with centralised systems.
To solve this, her team bypassed the need for new biometrics by using the existing BVN database.
“The payroll was our biggest cost,” Adeosun stated. “Previous biometric efforts had stalled because paramilitary groups refused to cooperate. We bypassed this by using BVN data. We ran the federal payroll against the BVN database, and the result was staggering we found 45,000 ‘ghost workers.’”
Clarifying the nature of the fraud, the former Minister noted that the term ‘ghost worker’ often masked simpler forms of systemic failure and individual greed rather than complex criminal syndicates.
“In many cases, it wasn’t a ‘ghost,’ but one person’s BVN linked to seven different salaries,” she explained.
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“It wasn’t always a ‘cartel.’ Sometimes it was just inefficiency, people who had died or transferred but were still being paid,” Adeosun added.
To ensure the reform stuck, she introduced a layer of human accountability to complement the technology. By requiring Permanent Secretaries to personally sign off on their respective payrolls, the ministry created a trail of responsibility that made it difficult to hide fraudulent entries.
Adeosun used the success of the BVN integration to emphasise a broader lesson for public officials: the importance of empirical evidence in policy defence.
“If you just shout, you’re just a ‘clanging cymbal.’ If you come armed with data and graphs, you can take on anybody. Data is hard to argue with,” she remarked.
The dialogue, which also featured Pastor Tunde Bakare and Professor Mike Adebamowo, highlighted the need for leaders to embrace modern tools to fix age-old problems. Adeosun urged current and emerging leaders to “fall in love with AI and data tools” while maintaining the discipline to execute reforms.
“If you can’t explain your policy, you shouldn’t be doing it,” Adeosun asserted, adding that while technology provides the “bullets,” it takes resilient leadership to “fire the cannonballs” necessary for national transformation.
The event concluded with a consensus that while the 45,000 discovered ghost workers represented a major win for the treasury, such reforms must be backed by law to ensure they are not reversed by future administrations.
Bakare praised the former minister’s resilience, noting that her ability to return to the public sphere with her integrity intact was a victory for governance.
He remarked, “If Adeosun had not won her case, the stigma would have trailed her. It is highly commendable that she came out as minister and no houses or stolen funds were traced to her.”
The event served as a stark reminder that while technology such as AI and BVN provides the tools for reform, only the courage of leaders and the permanence of law can ensure those reforms survive the test of time.
PUNCH
