In the span of three months, the Federal Government spent approximately N701m to fund the foreign trips of the country’s First Lady, Remi Tinubu, to five countries, Saturday PUNCH can confirm.
Checks by Punch correspondent, using GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses Federal Government’s spending, showed that the government paid out the sum of N700,707,532 over three months for the First Lady’s foreign trips to five countries, including two African nations.
On November 17, 2023, the government, through the State House headquarters transit account, released the sum of N77,659,888 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($94,314) for the First Lady’s trip to the United States.
On February 24, 2024, the government, through the State House headquarters transit account, paid the sum of N149,794,284 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($152,831) for the First Lady’s trip to France on January 4, 2024.
On March 15, 2024, the sum of N202,386,198 was also paid by the government through the State House account for the purchase of foreign exchange ($126,834) for the First Lady’s trip to Mozambique that month.
On the same day, the government paid N144,571,785 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($96,118) for the First Lady’s trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 9, 2024.
The government, through the same State House account, paid out the sum of N126,295,377 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($83,967) for the First Lady’s trip to London that month.
Additionally, the government spent a total sum of N314,231,472 on six programmes of the First Lady within four months.
On May 24, 2024, Rock of Ages Total Events Centre Ltd received the sum of N131,921,786 for full-scale decoration of State House events for the First Lady’s programmes for women, youth, and children.
On May 29, 2024, the State House paid N107,630,000 to Makeway Nigeria Limited for the provision of multimedia and related services during the First Lady’s programmes for women, youth, and children.
This indicates that a total sum of N1,014,939,004 has been spent by the govt on the First Lady’s trips.
Credit: Punch
