THE Presidential Air Fleet received at least N4.24bn in disbursements between June and December 2025, latest updates on GovSpend, a civic technology platform that tracks and analyses Federal Government spending, have revealed.
Findings by this newspaper further showed that the disbursements, made into the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account operated by the Presidential Air Fleets under the State House, were recorded in eight separate transactions across June, July and December 2025.
The bulk of the transfers were concentrated in July, when four transactions totalling N2.43bn were made within the space of one week.
A breakdown of the transactions showed 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, including 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 carried no accompanying description and were 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 allocated for foreign exchange requirements to facilitate international transactions, including expenses related to fuel purchases, maintenance, and services rendered in foreign currencies outside Nigeria.
The latest figures add to a growing cumulative spend that has accelerated significantly since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office.
At least N26.38bn was reportedly spent on the operations of the Presidential Air Fleet between July 2023 and December 2024, with N14.15bn disbursed in 2024 alone.
The Presidential Air Fleet’s total budget allocation stood at N17.32bn in 2025 before declining to N14.70bn in 2026, with the reduction 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, during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, budgetary allocations for the fleet have generally maintained an upward trend, except in 2020, rising from N4.37bn in 2017 to N20.52bn in 2024 — representing a 370 per cent increase in running costs over seven years.
Speaking in an interview with The PUNCH, the General Secretary of the Aviation Round Table, Olumide Ohunayo, attributed the sharp rise in costs to the age of some aircraft in the fleet, the declining value of the naira, and the “commercial use” of aircraft by the Nigerian Air Force.
Ohunayo explained, “The cost will definitely increase over the years because, for one, this issue of the naira against the dollar.
“As the naira keeps falling to the dollar, we will see a rise in cost because most of the costs of training crew and engineers and replacing aircraft parts are all in dollars.
“Also, some of these aircraft are not new. The older the aircraft, the higher the cost of maintenance and operation.
“Lastly, during these past years, terrorism and insecurity have increased in Nigeria, which has also affected the cost of insuring the aircraft.”
The concerns over the fleet’s operational condition gained renewed attention after President Tinubu was forced to abandon one of the presidential aircraft during an overseas trip.
The President had reportedly continued his journey to Saudi Arabia after the state-owned Gulfstream 550 assigned to carry him developed an unspecified technical fault in the Netherlands, forcing him to discontinue using the aircraft mid-tour.
The incident prompted the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence to recommend the procurement of two new presidential aircraft.
In August 2024, the official Boeing 737 business jet for the President was replaced with an Airbus A330 acquired for $100m through service-wide votes.
The nearly 15-year-old aircraft, an ACJ330-200, VP-CAC (MSN 1053), was described by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, as “spacious and furnished with state-of-the-art avionics, customised interior and communications system.”
According to him, the aircraft would save Nigeria “huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly.”
From February through July 2025, the President reportedly flew a San Marino-registered Boeing Business Jet with registration number T7-NAS.
Sources familiar with the development disclosed that the primary aircraft had been flown to South Africa for repainting and redesign to reflect the office of the President before it was returned to Nigeria in July 2025.
The Presidential Air Fleet currently comprises a fixed-wing fleet that includes the Airbus ACJ330-200, a Gulfstream G550, a Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7Xs, a Hawker 4000, and a Challenger 605, with three of the aircraft reportedly unserviceable.
The rotor-wing fleet consists of two Agusta 139 helicopters and two Agusta 101 helicopters, operated by the Nigerian Air Force under the supervision of the Office of the National Security Adviser.
Also commenting on the cost profile, the Chief Executive Officer of Centurion Security Limited, John Ojikutu, argued that the disbursements were justified considering the scale of operations and maintenance requirements.
“That’s not a big deal. If they are going for repair, particularly for C-checks. It’s always around that range,” Ojikutu said.
“They will fly it abroad, buy fuel, catering, and hotel bills are also involved; pilots will fly it back, and the figure likely includes far more than the direct cost of repairing the aircraft.”
The Presidency, however, did not respond to inquiries regarding the specific nature of the recent disbursements captured in the GovSpend data.
As of the time of filing this report, calls made to the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, were not answered.
In an earlier interview, Onanuga defended the cost of maintaining the Presidential Air Fleet, insisting that the expenditure was in the interest of Nigerians and national security.
“It’s not President Tinubu’s plane; it belongs to the people of Nigeria, it is our property…the President did not buy a new jet; what he has is a refurbished jet, but it is a much newer model than the one President Buhari used,” he said.
“Nigerians should try to prioritise the safety of the President. I’m not sure anybody wishes our President to go and crash in the air.
“We want his safety so that he can hand it over to whoever wants to take over from him,” Onanuga added.