The cost of maintaining the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) has hit a staggering ₦20.03 billion from July 2023 to December 2024, with ₦14.15 billion of this amount allocated for 2024 alone, according to findings from GovSpend, a civic tech platform.
Naija News understands that this figure represents 71 per cent of the total budget for the fleet in the 2024 fiscal year.
Most of the funds were allocated under the category of “Forex Transit Funds,” which cover foreign exchange requirements to facilitate international operations, including fuel, maintenance, and services in foreign currencies.
A source who spoke with Punch explained, “When the aircraft are abroad, payments are often made in U.S. dollars or another foreign currency to ensure uninterrupted operations.”
For instance, in July 2023, ₦1.52 billion was disbursed for “Presidential air fleet forex transit funds,” followed by ₦3.1 billion in August.
These payments continue throughout the year, with ₦5.60 billion disbursed in August alone. In April 2024, ₦5.08 billion was allocated, coinciding with President Tinubu’s two-nation tour to the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
As part of the ongoing fleet modernisation, the newly purchased Airbus A330, worth $100 million, was flown to South Africa for refurbishment, including a change of livery to reflect the office of the President.
The plane, an ACJ330-200, boasts state-of-the-art avionics and a customised interior, and is expected to save Nigeria significant fuel and maintenance costs.
However, since February 2025, President Tinubu has been using a San Marino-registered BBJ jet after technical issues with the primary aircraft.
“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.
“It’s not only the body paint. I learned they are doing some refurbishment on it,” one source said, asking to remain anonymous.
The growing cost of maintaining the Presidential Air Fleet has been attributed to several factors, including the age of some of the aircraft, the fluctuating exchange rate, and the Nigerian Air Force’s increasing “commercial use” of the planes.
The General Secretary of the Aviation Round Table, Olumide Ohunayo, in an interview with Punch, highlighted that the weakening naira has directly increased operational costs, as most parts and services are priced in dollars.
He said, “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 allocation for the Presidential Air Fleet has steadily increased, rising from ₦4.37 billion in 2017 to ₦20.52 billion in 2024—an increase of 370 per cent. In 2022 alone, the maintenance costs for each aircraft ranged from $1.5 million to $4.5 million annually.
The cost increase has been largely driven by the need to maintain ageing planes, the rising cost of aircraft parts, and the security concerns related to terrorism and insurgency in the country.
The PAF’s finances were further stretched when a foreign object damaged the cockpit windscreen of Vice President Kashim Shettima’s Gulfstream aircraft in New York.
Experts estimate that replacing the windshield could cost between $50,000 and $70,000. This further highlights the mounting expenses associated with maintaining the fleet.
The soaring budget for the PAF has raised concerns among Nigerians, with some criticising the administration’s spending habits.
The Executive Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, expressed disappointment over the government’s spending, stating that it contradicted the public’s expectations of frugality.
Adeniran said, “What we are getting from this administration is the opposite of our expectations. We thought we would have an administration that would be frugal in spending and very meticulous at implementing its budget. But what we are getting is an administration that has fallen in love with profligacy, that doesn’t see anything wrong in living big in a poverty-stricken nation.
“It is a reenactment of the Shagari administration, whereby they bought the biggest Mercedes Benz and made themselves as comfortable as possible without considering how much the masses are suffering.
“So when you look at a Vice President saying he’s not travelling [to Samoa] again because there was a splinter on the windscreen of his private aircraft. Why should that be the case?
“First and foremost, we need to be represented at such an international meeting, where we should be well represented by the first two citizens of this country. He abandoned that, which means we would have lost certain representation that we deserve at that forum. Two, money will have been spent on advance parties that went ahead of the Vice President. But he abandoned the journey altogether.”
The CEO of Centurion Security Limited, John Ojikutu, justified the figure considering all related expenses.
“That’s not a big deal. If they are going to go and repair, particularly for C-checks, it’s always around that range. They will fly it abroad, but 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,” Ojikutu explained.
Meanwhile, the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, argued that the new Airbus 330 aircraft and the costs of maintaining the air fleet are not for the President’s comfort but in the interest of Nigerians.
“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 – it has been used by somebody else before he got it, but it is a much newer model than the one President Buhari used.
“The one President Buhari used was bought by President Obasanjo some 20 years ago. There was a time when the President went to Saudi Arabia, and the plane developed some problems. The President had to leave the Netherlands with a chartered jet.
“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 said.
The presidential aide said he discussed with the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, on the faulty plane (Boeing 737 jet), and he said the maintenance costs were excessive because of the age of the aircraft, hence the need for another plane.
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