At least ₦20.03 billion was spent on the maintenance and operations of the Presidential Air Fleet from July 2023 to December 2024, The PUNCH reports.
This was as the new presidential jet purchased last year has been flown to South Africa for refurbishment and upgrades.
Findings by our correspondents from GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending, revealed that for 2024, the payouts amounted to ₦14.15 billion, representing 71 per cent of the allocations for the fleet in the 2024 fiscal year.
Most disbursements were labelled “Forex Transit Funds,” usually funds allocated for foreign exchange requirements to facilitate international transactions and engagements.
For the Presidential Air Fleet, such funds cover expenses related to operations abroad, including fuel purchases, maintenance or services in foreign currencies.
“When aircraft on the fleet are abroad, payments are often made in U.S. dollars or another foreign currency to ensure we have uninterrupted operations,” a government official explained.
In July 2023, ₦1.52 billion was disbursed in two tranches of ₦846 million and ₦675 million for “Presidential air fleet forex transit funds.”
The following month, ₦3.1 billion was disbursed in three tranches of N388 million, N2 billion, and ₦713 million for the same item. In November of that year, ₦1.26 billion was released to the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account.
The first overhead for 2024 was in March, when ₦1.27 billion was disbursed twice, amounting to ₦2.54bn. The transit account received ₦6.35 billion in April, ₦4.97 billion in May and ₦210 million in July.
In August, ₦5.60 billion was released in six separate disbursements, the highest frequency that year. The monies were paid into the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account, including a ₦168 million transfer made on September 11 and 19. From December 7 to 24, 2025, ₦469.72 million was released in eight tranches.
In April, the transit account received ₦5.08 billion; this came around the same time the President was on a two-nation tour to the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
Although Tinubu arrived in the Netherlands in a state-owned Gulfstream AeroSpace 550 Jet, the aircraft could not proceed to Saudi Arabia due to unspecified technical problems. He reportedly continued his journey on a chartered private plane.
At the time, the President’s Boeing 737 business jet was undergoing maintenance. It was later replaced with an Airbus A330 purchased for $100 million in August through the service-wide votes.
The nearly 15-year-old plane, an ACJ330-200, VP-CAC (MSN 1053), is “spacious and furnished with state-of-the-art avionics, customised interior and communications system,” Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, said, adding “it will save Nigeria huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly.”
However, The PUNCH observes that since February 2025, the President has been using a San Marino-registered BBJ (REG: T7-NAS).
Sources who spoke to one of our correspondents confirmed that the primary aircraft had been flown to South Africa to change its livery to reflect the office of the President.
“The last I heard is that they took it abroad, I think to South Africa, to change the body design. You know it doesn’t have the green white green,” one source said, asking to remain anonymous.
“It’s not only the body paint. I learned they are doing some refurbishment on it,” a second official stated.
The new Airbus A330 is just one of several aircraft currently on the Presidential Air Fleet, arguably one of Africa’s largest, with around 11 aircraft of various makes and models.
Until August, it comprised the 19-year-old B737-700 (BBJ) and a 13-year-old Gulfstream Aerospace G550. The BBJ was acquired during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo at $43m, but became a money guzzler as it aged.
The presidential fixed-wing fleet includes a Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7Xs, a Hawker 4000, and a Challenger 605. Three of the seven fixed wings are reportedly unserviceable.
The rotor-wing fleet includes two Agusta 139s and two Agusta 101s, all operated by the Nigerian Air Force but supervised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
Since 2017, budgetary allocations for the PAF have shown a growing trend, with one exception in 2020. The allocation for the fleet increased from ₦4.37 billion in 2017 to ₦20.52 billion in 2024, showing a 370 per cent rise in running costs. In 2022, maintenance expenses for each aircraft ranged from $1.5 million to $4.5 million annually.
In 2018, the fleet’s budget rose significantly by 66.13 per cent to ₦7.26 billion, driven by a substantial increase in capital project allocations while maintaining similar levels for recurrent costs. This upward trajectory continued into 2019, slightly increasing the total allocation to ₦7.30 billion.
The exception came in 2020, when the budget dropped by nearly 7 per cent to ₦6.79 billion, primarily due to decreased overhead costs, a reflection of the global economic impacts of lockdowns and disruptions in operations.
By 2021, however, the budget surged dramatically to ₦12.55 billion—a record increase of 84.83 per cent from the previous year. The 2022, 2023 and 2024 appropriation acts earmarked ₦12.48 billion, ₦13.07 billion and ₦20.52 billion respectively.
On his way to the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Samoa, a foreign object damaged the cockpit windscreen of Vice President Kashim Shettima’s Gulf Stream aircraft during a stopover at JFK Airport in New York.
According to Lee Aerospace, manufacturers of Gulfstream jet windshields, these thick, multilayered structures comprise varying layers of glass and transparent acrylic, built to withstand collisions with a 2 kg object.
However, damage to the windshield must have affected its inner layers. While specific prices for replacement can vary based on supplier, labour rates and regional costs, estimates suggest that a single windshield replacement for a G550 can range from $50,000 to $70,000 for part and labour costs.
The PUNCH