Tinubu’s government spends N4.24bn on presidential jets in six months – Report

The Federal Government, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has spent about N4.24bn on the Presidential Air Fleet within 6 months, indicating the high cost of maintaining executive air mobility amid persistent calls for austerity.

An analysis of spending records obtained from Govspend, a civic tech platform that tracks government expenditures, revealed that the disbursements were made between June and December 2025 for the operational and logistical upkeep of the fleet.

A finding by PUNCH also revealed that the disbursements, made into the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account operated by the Presidential Air Fleets (State House), were recorded in eight separate transactions across three months of June, July and December 2025, with the bulk of the transfers concentrated in July, when four transactions totalling N2.43bn were made in the space of a week.

A breakdown of the transactions shows that N1.285bn was disbursed on June 12, followed by N430m on July 24, N1.28bn on July 25, N92m on July 29, and N626m on July 31.

In December, three further disbursements were recorded. They include N9m on December 18, described in the GovSpend database as “Presidential Air Fleet forex transit funds,” N343.9m on December 30 and N90.9m on December 31.

Four of the eight transactions carry no accompanying description, listed simply as “None,” a pattern consistent with previous disbursements to the transit account.

Most disbursements to the Presidential Air Fleet transit account are labelled “Forex Transit Funds,” typically funds allocated for foreign exchange requirements to facilitate international transactions, covering expenses related to operations outside the country, including fuel purchases, maintenance or services in foreign currencies.

The new figures add to a growing cumulative spend that has accelerated significantly since Tinubu assumed office.

At least N26.38bn was spent on the operations of the Presidential Air Fleet from July 2023 to December 2024, with N14.15bn disbursed in 2024 alone.

The Presidential Air Fleet’s total budget allocation stood at N17.32bn in 2025, declining to N14.70bn in 2026.

The reduction was driven mainly by decreased capital expenditure.

Engine overhaul projects across the fleet consumed N4.58bn in 2024, N8.65bn in 2025 and N6.05bn in 2026, bringing the three-year aggregate to N19.27bn.

Since 2017, under the Buhari administration, budgetary allocations for the fleet have shown a growing trend, with one exception in 2020, rising from N4.37bn in 2017 to N20.52bn in 2024, a 370 per cent increase in running costs over seven years.