Former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has revealed how the Federal Government uncovered tens of thousands of fraudulent salary entries by leveraging the Bank Verification Number (BVN) system to clean up its payroll.

Speaking at the Citadel School of Government Dialogue Series in Lagos, Adeosun said the reform targeted what was then the government’s largest expense its wage bill which had long been plagued by inefficiencies and fraud.

“The payroll was our biggest cost,” she said, noting that earlier attempts to sanitise the system through biometric verification had failed due to resistance from some government agencies, particularly paramilitary institutions.

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“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.’”

She explained that many of the irregularities were not necessarily the result of organised criminal networks, but often stemmed from systemic lapses and abuse of loopholes.

“In many cases, it wasn’t a ‘ghost,’ but one person’s BVN linked to seven different salaries,” Adeosun said. “It wasn’t always a ‘cartel.’ Sometimes it was just inefficiency, people who had died or transferred but were still being paid.”

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To strengthen the reform, Adeosun said her team introduced measures to ensure accountability by mandating Permanent Secretaries to personally certify payroll records, thereby creating a clear chain of responsibility.

Beyond the payroll clean-up, the former minister stressed the importance of data-driven governance, urging policymakers to rely on evidence rather than rhetoric.

“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 said.

She also encouraged leaders to embrace emerging technologies in tackling governance challenges, urging them to “fall in love with AI and data tools” while maintaining discipline in execution.

“If you can’t explain your policy, you shouldn’t be doing it,” she added, noting that while technology provides the “bullets,” effective leadership is required to “fire the cannonballs” needed for meaningful reform.

The event, which also featured Tunde Bakare and Mike Adebamowo, underscored the need to institutionalise reforms through legal frameworks to prevent reversals.

Bakare commended Adeosun’s stewardship and post-office reputation, saying, “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.”