Presidency spent N37.64 billion on presidential trips, logistics, foreign exchange and other travel-related expenses between June 2023 and April 2026, according to an analysis of GovSpend, a public expenditure monitoring platform developed by BudgIT.
The disclosure comes as President Bola Tinubu departed Abuja for Europe on a three-week annual vacation, with London as his initial destination.
According to official travel records, Tinubu spent approximately 261 days outside Nigeria on 51 foreign trips, visiting at least 30 countries since assuming office on May 29, 2023.
The analysis showed that travel-related expenditure stood at N9.18 billion in the second half of 2023, N25.26 billion in 2024, N2.70 billion in 2025 and N477.4 million between January and April 2026.
The highest expenditure was recorded in 2024, driven largely by foreign exchange allocations and operational funding for the Presidential Air Fleet.
The records also showed that $553,884 in foreign exchange, valued at N700.7 million at applicable rates, was released for overseas travels involving First Lady Oluremi Tinubu between 2023 and 2024.
Reacting to the findings, President of the Transparency and Accountability Group, Ayo Ologun, questioned the legal basis for funding official foreign travels involving the First Lady.
“Because her office is not recognised by the law, if it is established that public money was spent on supposed official travels, the question should be: what is the duty?” Ologun said.
“If it is spent on the wife of the President, that is abuse of power,” he added.
