The Technical Aid Corps (TAC) and the State House accounted for some of the largest portions of the Federal Government’s N50.41bn foreign-travel expenditure recorded between June 2023 and June 19, 2026, with payments covering air tickets, estacode, offshore allowances, overseas training and other travel-related expenses.
An analysis of government payment records showed that the expenditure was spread across 1,967 transactions involving 129 federal institutions.
The data, obtained from GovSpend, a public expenditure tracking platform developed by civic-tech organisation BudgIT, showed that TAC alone recorded N11.70bn in 93 transactions, while State House Headquarters accounted for N4.83bn in 28 payments.
The analysis covered six GovSpend transaction datasets containing 9,305 entries, after 1,001 duplicate records were removed, 8,304 unique payments remained.
Foreign air tickets accounted for the largest component of the expenditure, with N23.70bn spent across 958 transactions.
Estacode and offshore allowances accounted for another N17.05bn, while other foreign-travel expenses, including accommodation, visas, participation fees, foreign exchange, protocol and logistics, amounted to N5.35bn.
Meanwhile, overseas training accounted for N4.32bn. The spending increased from N16.54bn between June 2023 and May 2024 to N19.13bn between June 2024 and May 2025, representing a 15.7 per cent increase. It subsequently declined to N14.66bn between June 2025 and May 2026.
However, the average value of each transaction increased from N23.17m in the first year to N31.39m in the third year, indicating that the decline in total expenditure was accompanied by fewer but higher-value payments.
The Federal Ministry of Sports Development also recorded N4.10bn in 25 payments, with much of the expenditure linked to Nigeria’s participation in the 2024 African Games in Accra, Ghana.
The payments covered chartered flights, participation fees, allowances, estacode and other expenses for the Nigerian contingent.
The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure recorded N2.05bn through 221 transactions, the highest number of payments by any institution in the dataset.
The Federal Ministry of Finance followed with N1.58bn across 117 transactions.
The Federal Ministry of Education recorded N1.05bn through 20 payments, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accounted for N1.05bn across 68 transactions.
Other institutions with significant expenditure included the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, N1.01bn; the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, N963.78m; the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, N773.68m; and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, N760.56m, amongst others.
The records showed that foreign air tickets remained the largest category by both value and transaction volume, accounting for 958 payments.
Estacode and offshore allowances accounted for 488 transactions, while overseas training generated 399 payments. Other foreign-travel expenses were recorded in 122 transactions.
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