The offices of the President and Vice-President will be gulping N11.92 billion on local, foreign trips and management of the presidential air fleet according to the N20.51tn 2023 budget proposal presented by president Buhari on Friday.
According to the budget, N1.58bn of the stated amount will be going to aircraft maintenance and another N1.60bn for the replacement of the Gulfstream GV and CL605 aircraft engines.
In further examination of the appropriation, Office of the President will spend N2.49bn on local and foreign trips, while the Office of the Vice-President will spend N846.61m on local and foreign trips for the year.
In the document, the Presidential Air Fleet’s budget, categorised under the Office of the National Security Adviser, aircraft fuelling will cost the government N250m, purchase of air navigational and defence equipment will gulp N1.50bn, while N650m will go for a new mobile helicopter landing pad.
Bank charges will gulp N36.15m and insurance premium on all 10 aircraft in the fleet is expected to cost N180m.
The Nigerian Presidential Air Fleet presently maintains 10 aircraft since the beginning of Buhari’s regime.
The aircrafts include; Boeing Business Jet (Boeing 737-800 or NAF 001), one Gulfstream 550, one Gulfstream V (Gulfstream 500), two Falcons 7X, one Hawker Siddeley 4000, two AgustaWestland AW 139 helicopters and two AgustaWestland AW 101 helicopters.
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Both offices of the president and vice-president will also spend a total of N508.71m on foodstuffs and refreshments. The amount stands at N331.79m and N176.92m for the offices of the President and Vice-President, respectively.
For 2022 PAF allocation was N12.48bn while its 2023 proposal is N8.07bn.