MDAs’ Foreign Trips Gulp N50bn As FG Moves To Block Unauthorised Travel

Federal ministries, departments, and agencies released at least N50.41bn for foreign trips, air tickets, estacode, offshore allowances, and overseas training between June 2023 and June 19, 2026, an analysis of government payment records has shown.

The expenditure was recorded in 1,967 transactions involving 129 federal institutions and their agencies, according to data obtained from GovSpend and analyzed by The PUNCH, ABNTV reports.

GovSpend is a public expenditure tracking platform developed by the civic-tech organization BudgIT to make federal government payment records accessible for public scrutiny.

The PUNCH analysis was based on 9,305 entries obtained from six GovSpend transaction datasets. After removing 1,001 duplicated entries, the dataset contained 8,304 unique payments. A further 6,337 transactions were excluded because their descriptions did not provide sufficient evidence that they were connected to foreign travel.

Also, the analysis covered payments of N5m and above. This means the N50.41bn represents a minimum figure, as thousands of smaller travel-related transactions below the threshold were not captured in the dataset.

Three complete 12-month periods from June 2023 to May 2026 accounted for N50.34bn, while another N69.88m was released between June 1 and June 19, 2026. The records showed that foreign air tickets constituted the largest component of the spending, accounting for N23.70bn, or 47 percent of the total.

Estacode and offshore allowances followed with N17.05bn, representing 33.8 percent. Other foreign-travel expenses, including visas, accommodation, participation fees, foreign exchange, protocol, and travel logistics, amounted to N5.35bn, or 10.6 percent. Training outside Nigeria accounted for N4.32bn, equivalent to 8.6 percent.

The expenditure rose from N16.54bn in the first period covering June 2023 to May 2024 to N19.13bn between June 2024 and May 2025. This represented an increase of N2.59bn, or 15.7 percent.

It subsequently fell by N4.47bn, or 23.4 percent, to N14.66bn between June 2025 and May 2026.

The PUNCH further observed that the government recorded 714 foreign-travel transactions in the first year, at an average of N23.17m per payment. The number increased to 780 in the second year, with an average value of N24.53m.

Transactions fell to 467 in the third year, but the average value rose to N31.39m, indicating that fewer but larger payments drove the expenditure during the period.

The Technical Aid Corps recorded the highest expenditure among the MDAs, with N11.70bn paid through 93 transactions. The amount represented 23.2 percent of the total foreign-travel bill.

A substantial part of the agency’s expenditure covered offshore allowances for Nigerian volunteers and other foreign-service activities. Its major releases included N1.45bn in July 2025, N1.27bn in April 2026, N1.23bn in May 2025, and N1.22bn in December 2025.

Another N1.01bn was released in October 2025, while payments of N884.28m and N812.24m were recorded in May and April 2026, respectively. The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation ranked second, with N5.16bn recorded in two transactions.

Its largest transaction, and the single biggest payment in the dataset, was N5.15bn released in December 2024 for what the payment description identified as outstanding estacode allowances and flight tickets for the vice-president and first lady’s official foreign trips that were not budgeted for in 2023 and 2024.

The records indicate that the payment was processed by the Accountant-General’s office, although the expenditure related to State House foreign trips. State House Headquarters followed with N4.83bn across 28 transactions, while the Federal Ministry of Sports Development recorded N4.10bn in 25 payments.

State House Operations for the President spent another N2.12bn through 19 transactions. State House Operations for the vice president separately recorded N691.66m across nine payments.

The State House Headquarters payments included N1.04bn released for foreign exchange connected with President Bola Tinubu’s trip to Ethiopia in February 2024. It also included N750m for a presidential trip 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 N4.10bn bill was largely linked to Nigeria’s participation in the 2024 African Games in Accra, Ghana. The payments covered chartered flights, participation fees, allowances, estacode, and other expenses for the Nigerian contingent.

The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure recorded N2.05bn through 221 transactions, the highest number of payments by any institution in the dataset. The Federal Ministry of Finance followed with N1.58bn across 117 transactions, while the Federal Ministry of Education recorded N1.05bn through 20 payments.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accounted for N1.05bn across 68 transactions, while the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit recorded N1.01bn through 93 payments.