Presidency’s foreign trips reportedly gulp N37.6 billion in just three years

The Presidency reportedly spent N37.64 billion on presidential trips, logistics, foreign exchange and other travel-related expenses between June 2023 and April 2026.

This is according to an analysis of GovSpend, a civic tech platform created by BudgIT that simplifies and visualizes the Federal Government’s real-time treasury payments and actual expenditures.

The disclosure came as President Bola Tinubu on Sunday left Abuja for Europe on a three-week annual vacation, with London as his first destination.

Official travel records of President Tinubu showed that he has spent about 261 days outside Nigeria, visiting at least 30 countries in 51 foreign trips since May 29, 2023.

According to the GovSpend records, travel-related spending of of the President gulped N9.18bn in the second half of 2023, while N25.26bn in 2024, N2.7bn in 2025 and N477.4m between January and April 2026.

The analysis showed that the spending peaked in 2024, driven largely by foreign exchange allocations and funding for the Presidential Air Fleet.

The records equally disclosed that $553,884, valued at N700.7m at applicable exchange rates, was released for overseas trips involving First Lady Oluremi Tinubu between 2023 and 2024.

Reacting, Transparency and Accountability Group President, Ayo Ologun, questioned the legal basis for funding official foreign trips by 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?

“If it is spent on the wife of the President, that is abuse of power,” Ologun added.