MORGANABLE politics/Governance
Foreign air tickets constituted the largest component of the spending, accounting for N23.70bn or 47 per cent of the total expenditure.
KaNo—
Federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) spent no less than N50.41bn on foreign trips, air tickets, estacode allowances, overseas training and related expenses between June 2023 and June 19, 2026, an analysis of government payment records has revealed.
The expenditure, drawn from data on GovSpend, a public finance transparency platform developed by civic-tech organisation BudgIT, covered 1,967 transactions involving 129 federal institutions.
The figures, analysed from multiple datasets, highlight the scale and pattern of official travel spending amid growing economic pressures in the country.
The dataset reviewed comprised 9,305 payment entries extracted from six GovSpend records.
After eliminating 1,001 duplicated entries, 8,304 unique transactions remained.
Of these, 6,337 payments were excluded because their descriptions did not clearly indicate a connection to foreign travel, leaving only verified transactions tied to overseas trips and related expenses.
The analysis focused on payments of N5m and above, meaning the total N50.41bn represents only a baseline figure.
Thousands of smaller transactions below this threshold were not included, suggesting that actual spending on foreign travel by MDAs during the period could be significantly higher.
A breakdown of the figures showed that three full 12-month periods from June 2023 to May 2026 accounted for N50.34bn of the total, while an additional N69.88m was spent between June 1 and June 19, 2026.
Foreign air tickets constituted the largest component of the spending, accounting for N23.70bn or 47 per cent of the total expenditure.
Estacode and offshore allowances followed with N17.05bn, representing 33.8 per cent.
Other travel-related expenses including visa fees, accommodation, participation costs, foreign exchange, protocol services and logistics amounted to N5.35bn or 10.6 per cent.
Overseas training accounted for N4.32bn, representing 8.6 per cent.
Year-on-year analysis showed a rise in spending during the first two periods, followed by a decline in the third.
Between June 2023 and May 2024, MDAs spent N16.54bn. This increased by N2.59bn, or 15.7 per cent, to N19.13bn in the period from June 2024 to May 2025.
However, the figure dropped by N4.47bn, or 23.4 per cent, to N14.66bn between June 2025 and May 2026.
The number of transactions also fluctuated across the three periods. In the first year, 714 foreign-travel-related payments were recorded, with an average value of N23.17m per transaction.
This rose to 780 transactions in the second year, with an average value of N24.53m.
In contrast, the third year recorded fewer transactions 467 in total but with a higher average value of N31.39m per payment, indicating that larger disbursements drove spending during that period despite the decline in overall volume.
Among the MDAs, the Technical Aid Corps emerged as the highest spender, accounting for N11.70bn across 93 transactions representing 23.2 per cent of the total foreign travel expenditure.
A significant portion of this spending was attributed to offshore allowances for Nigerian volunteers deployed abroad and other foreign service-related commitments.
The agency recorded several high-value payments, including N1.45bn in July 2025, N1.27bn in April 2026, N1.23bn in May 2025 and N1.22bn in December 2025.
Additional disbursements included N1.01bn in October 2025, as well as N884.28m and N812.24m released in May and April 2026, respectively.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation ranked second, with N5.16bn recorded in just two transactions.
The largest single payment in the dataset N5.15bn was made in December 2024 to cover outstanding estacode allowances and flight tickets for the Vice-President and the First Lady’s foreign trips that were not captured in the 2023 and 2024 budgets.
Although the payment was processed by the Accountant-General’s office, the expenditure related to official travel by the State House, underscoring the central role of the presidency in foreign travel spending.
The State House Headquarters recorded N4.83bn across 28 transactions, while the Federal Ministry of Sports Development followed with N4.10bn in 25 payments.
State House Operations for the President accounted for N2.12bn through 19 transactions, while State House Operations for the Vice-President recorded N691.66m across nine payments.
Detailed records show that some of the State House expenditures were tied to specific trips.
These included N1.04bn released for foreign exchange related to President Bola Tinubu’s trip to Ethiopia in February 2024, N750m for a presidential visit to Dubai in November 2023, and N426.88m for the Vice-President’s trip to Switzerland in January 2024.
The Ministry of Sports Development’s spending was largely associated with Nigeria’s participation in the 2024 African Games held in Accra, Ghana.
The expenses covered chartered flights, participation fees, estacode allowances and other logistical costs for the country’s delegation.
The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure recorded N2.05bn across 221 transactions—the highest number of payments by any institution while the Federal Ministry of Finance spent N1.58bn through 117 transactions.
Other MDAs with significant spending included the Federal Ministry of Education, which recorded N1.05bn across 20 payments, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which accounted for N1.05bn through 68 transactions.
The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit also recorded N1.01bn across 93 payments.
Additional expenditures were recorded by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru (N963.78m), the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs (N773.68m), the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (N760.56m), and police formations and commands (N731.82m).
Further breakdown of the Ministry of Education’s spending showed that N291.03m was paid in December 2024 for one-way air tickets for 109 Nigerian scholars travelling to Moscow, Russia.
Another N249.60m was released for air tickets for 78 beneficiaries of the 2023/2024 Morocco scholarship programme.
In February 2025, the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission spent N498.89m on air tickets and ground handling services for members of the House of Representatives and commission officials travelling to Rome and Israel for what was described as a research and programme development visit.
Overall, foreign air ticket payments accounted for 958 transactions, making them the most frequent and highest-value category.
Estacode and offshore allowances were recorded in 488 transactions, while overseas training accounted for 399 payments. Other travel-related expenses were captured in 122 transactions.
The scale of the expenditure has drawn criticism from civil society organisations, which argue that such spending may not align with the country’s current economic realities.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has previously raised concerns about the growing cost of estacode allowances, warning that the trend could reflect a misuse of public funds.
SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, in an earlier interview, questioned whether the scale of foreign travel spending reflects the priorities of a government grappling with economic challenges, including inflation, rising fuel costs and declining purchasing power among citizens.
While government officials maintain that international travel remains necessary for diplomacy, training and global engagement, analysts say there is a need for stricter oversight and cost-efficiency measures to ensure that such expenditures deliver value for money.
As Nigeria continues to navigate economic reforms and fiscal constraints, the scrutiny of public spending particularly on non-essential items remains a key issue in the broader conversation about accountability and governance.
