The Presidency spent at least N34.39bn on foreign exchange purchases for international travel and related official obligations between 2024 and 2025, according to data obtained from GovSpend, the public expenditure tracking platform managed by BudgIT.
The records, which track transactions by the State House, the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF), the Office of the Chief of Staff, and activities linked to the President, Vice President, First Lady and their aides, show a stark contrast in spending patterns between the two years.
While N29.35bn was spent in 2024, the figure dropped sharply to N5.04bn in 2025, a decline of 82.8 per cent year-on-year.
The forex purchases were tied mainly to official foreign trips, aviation operations, estacodes, training programmes and logistics for international engagements involving top government officials. Although the Presidency has consistently defended such trips as necessary for diplomacy, investment promotion and bilateral relations, the scale of the spending has raised eyebrows amid Nigeria’s fiscal pressures and foreign exchange shortages.
A major chunk of the 2024 spending was linked to the Presidential Air Fleet, which handles the air transport needs of senior government officials.
Between March and May 2024, the PAF recorded repeated forex purchases of about N1.27bn on March 7, March 9, April 6, May 11 and May 25. Larger transactions included N5.08bn on April 23 and N2.43bn on May 8.
Additional aviation-related payments followed in July and August, including transfers of N1.25bn, N2.21bn, N1.24bn and N902.9m, pushing the air fleet’s forex bill into several billions of naira within months.
Beyond aviation, the State House Headquarters recorded numerous forex purchases directly tied to foreign trips by the President, Vice President and First Lady.
In February 2024 alone, more than N2.5bn was spent on forex for specific trips. These included N426.88m for the Vice President’s trip to Switzerland, N1.04bn for the President’s visit to Ethiopia, N750m for a trip to Dubai, N176.77m for Côte d’Ivoire, N149.79m for the First Lady’s trip to France, and N86.76m for another vice-presidential trip to Liberia.
March recorded further spending, including N202.39m for the First Lady’s trip to Mozambique, N144.57m for Addis Ababa, and N126.30m for London. The Vice President’s activities added N201.12m for Côte d’Ivoire and N169.54m for estacodes linked to UK and US training programmes.
From July, forex purchases intensified, with multiple same-day transactions on July 17 totalling over N1.5bn. Further payments were recorded in late July, August and October, including a notable N1.36bn purchase on October 28.
Spending remained elevated in the final quarter of 2024. Several forex transactions were logged in November, while December added another N736.20m, reinforcing the pattern of sustained forex demand throughout the year.
However, the trend changed markedly in 2025.
Total forex purchases fell to N5.04bn, with transactions becoming smaller and less frequent. On April 30, 2025, several purchases ranged from N23.67m to N535.82m. Even the larger amounts recorded for the Presidential Air Fleet in mid-2025 - N1.29bn, N1.28bn and N626m - were fewer and spread across months.
By the second half of 2025, spending had reduced further, with August transactions as low as N7.67m and N11.14m, and modest payments recorded towards the end of the year.
The sharp decline coincided with relative stability in the foreign exchange market in 2025 following policy reforms and improved dollar inflows.
The data highlight the high cost of official foreign travel in 2024 and the significant reduction a year later, drawing renewed attention to the financial implications of such expenditures during periods of economic strain.
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