President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and their aides at the Presidential Villa are to spend N15.961 billion on foreign and domestic travel in 2024. The figure is contained in the 2024 Appropriation Bill, now being considered by the National Assembly.
According to the breakdown of the budget, President Tinubu will spend N7.630 billion on travel, with overseas trip accounting for the majority of the expenditure. He would go abroad for N6.992 billion and domestically for N638.535 million, if approved by the federal legislature.
Vice President Shettima would also incur travel expenses of N1.847 billion, both domestically and abroad. The proposed budget states that he will travel for N1.229 billion overseas and N618.399 million domestically.
For local and foreign travel, Villa Headquarters received an additional N6.484 billion. It is made up of N6.282 billion for travel abroad, N60.981 million for training-related local travel, and N140.640 million for domestic travel. The federal budget for 2024 allotted N40.616 billion to the Villa Headquarters, with N12497 billion going towards capital, N10.334 billion going for overhead, and N163 billion going towards staff.
The villa’s annual maintenance was allocated N9 billion, with N4.5 billion for Juliuus Berger liabilities. N3 billion was allocated for the construction of offices for Special Advisers and Senior Special Advisers, and N3 billion for the State House Annex.
Despite the budgetary provision for operational vehicles in the 2023 Supplementary Budget, recently another N4 billion was allocated to operational vehicles, while another N2 billion was provisioned for SUVs.
The rehabilitation of Animal Enclosure in the Villa was allocated the sum of N45,259 million; the construction of the villa ranch and wild life conservation got N130.076 million.
In 2024, N5.128 billion will be spent by President Tinubu and his Vice, Shettima, on food, miscellaneous, honoraria, refreshments, fixed asset repair, and computer software procurement.
According to the breakdown of the figures, Shettima, President Tinubu’s vice president, would spend N348 million on food supplies and catering equipment, while President Tinubu would spend N254 million. Within the 2024 budget cycle, N430 million is allocated for the State House headquarters for the same purpose.
The president is expected to spend N219 million on miscellaneous expenditures, and in the same period, the vice president will also spend N187 million on miscellaneous items. Similarly, the State House Headquarters would be spending 2.54 billion on miscellaneous in the same period.
Further breakdown of the figure shows that President Tinubu would be spending N152.4 million on honorarium and sitting allowance, whereas the Vice President would be spending N67 million on the same item. For State House Headquarters, the sum of N365.8 million is budgeted for honorarium.
The sum of N650million has been proposed to be spent by the president on repairs and rehabilitation of fixed assets; and N103 million is expected to be spent by the vice president on the acquisition of computer software. In a similar vein, the sum of $980 million is estimated to be spent on computers and repairs of assents by Villa Headquarters.