MDAs’ foreign trips gulp N50bn in three years – Report

The revelation that Nigerian federal MDAs spent a minimum of N50.41 billion on foreign trips over three years underscores a significant concern regarding public financial management and accountability. This expenditure, meticulously tracked through the GovSpend platform by BudgIT and analyzed by The PUNCH, covers a range of activities from air tickets and estacode to offshore allowances and overseas training. The sheer scale of the spending, involving nearly 2,000 transactions across 129 institutions, suggests a pervasive culture of international engagement that warrants closer scrutiny, especially given the country's economic challenges.

N50.41bn Expenditure

The reported N50.41 billion expenditure represents a conservative estimate, as the analysis deliberately excluded thousands of smaller transactions below a N5 million threshold. This implies the actual total cost of foreign travel for government officials could be considerably higher. The breakdown of this spending reveals that foreign air tickets constituted the largest component, accounting for 47 percent or N23.70 billion, followed by estacode and offshore allowances at 33.8 percent or N17.05 billion. These figures highlight that a substantial portion of public funds is being allocated to the logistics and per diem of international travel, rather than direct program implementation or capacity building.

While the expenditure initially rose from N16.54 billion in the first year to N19.13 billion in the second, it saw a slight decrease to N14.66 billion in the third year. However, despite the overall dip in the third year, the average value per transaction increased significantly, indicating fewer but larger payments. This trend suggests that while the number of trips might have reduced, the cost per trip for those undertaken became more substantial, potentially reflecting higher-level delegations or more expensive destinations and arrangements. Such a pattern could point to a lack of cost-efficiency measures or a focus on high-profile, high-cost engagements.

Technical Aid Corps

The Technical Aid Corps emerged as the highest spender among the MDAs, with N11.70 billion disbursed through 93 transactions, representing 23.2 percent of the total foreign travel bill. A significant portion of this agency's expenditure was attributed to offshore allowances for Nigerian volunteers and other foreign-service activities. This particular spending, while potentially justifiable given the agency's mandate to provide technical assistance to other developing nations, still contributes substantially to the overall foreign travel budget. The large individual releases, such as N1.45 billion in July 2025 and N1.27 billion in April 2026, underscore the scale of its international operations and the financial commitment involved in supporting its volunteers abroad.

Office of the Accountant-General

Ranking second in expenditure, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation recorded N5.16 billion in just two transactions, with one single payment of N5.15 billion standing out as the largest in the entire dataset. This colossal payment, made in December 2024, was specifically identified as covering 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. This particular instance raises serious questions about budgetary discipline, financial planning, and the process of approving and disbursing funds for high-level government officials. The fact that such a significant amount was released for unbudgeted past trips, even if processed by the Accountant-General's office but related to State House foreign trips, points to potential systemic weaknesses in fiscal oversight and accountability mechanisms within the government.