To Empty National Account Before New Year, NASENI DG Khalil Halilu Pushed N10.6 Billion to a Chinese Builder in the Christmas Week Rush for a N35.5 Billion Campus

Secrets Reporters

Official payment records show that the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) released N10.65 billion to CGC Nigeria Limited in two tranches three days apart in the last week of December 2025, described in the records as part of a 30 per cent mobilisation fee for the construction of the agency’s Abuja campus.

The first release, N5.65 billion on December 25, is labelled the balance of the mobilisation fee. The second, N5 billion on December 27, is labelled a part payment of the same mobilisation fee. A balance paid two days before a part payment of the same fee is the kind of sequencing anomaly the Public Procurement Act 2007 was written to catch, and it remains unexplained in the records. Disbursement irregularities of this kind are exactly what the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 targets when it criminalises the use of public office for private advantage.

The arithmetic of a 30 per cent mobilisation fee points to an underlying contract value of roughly N35.5 billion, a sum that would make the campus one of the largest single contracts awarded under the current leadership of the agency.

The Public Procurement Act requires that contract awards of this magnitude pass through open competitive bidding and that awards be publicly advertised, yet no procurement notice or award announcement naming CGC Nigeria Limited as the campus contractor could be located.

An award of this size without a public competitive trail engages the ICPC Act’s abuse-of-office provisions, which make it an offence for a public officer to confer a corrupt advantage on any person.

The campus itself is real as construction is ongoing at the Abuja Technology Village in Lugbe, and the agency’s chief executive, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, personally inspected the site in July 2026, describing it as the anchor of a planned 300-hectare manufacturing hub along the Airport Expressway.

Year-end mobilisation payments of this size especially on Christmas Day declared a national holiday are a classic red flag in public finance.

Releasing more than ten billion naira as the financial year closes raises the question of whether the disbursements were driven by the construction schedule or by the calendar, an act that would offend the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s insistence that public spending be efficient and tied to value.