Allocations for the President and Vice President’s refreshments and meals gulps N618,346,469 in the proposed budget for 2025, findings by The Guardian have revealed.

The Guardian also found that the sum of N1,732,106,427 and N7,014,596,511 was allocated for international and local trips for President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, respectively, in the budget.

The Guardian found this by perusing the proposed 2025 budget presented to the National Assembly by Tinubu on Wednesday.

Under State House Operations/President in the proposed budget, N375, 187,661 N56,432,522 were allocated to foodstuff/catering materials/supplies and refreshment and meals for Tinubu, while Shettima got N171,027,419 and N14,998,867 for the same purpose.

The Guardian also found that the allocation for the Vice President’s foodstuff/catering materials, refreshments, and meals in the proposed 2025 budget is half of what was allocated in the 2024 budget for the same purpose.

However, there is a N144,620,183 increase in the President’s foodstuff/catering materials, refreshments, and meals allocation in the proposed 2025 budget compared to the 2024 budgetary allocation of N287.7 million.

The 2025 proposed budget also reveals an allocation of N7,014,596,511 and N1,732,106,427 for Tinubu and Shettima’s travel expenses, respectively.

Tinubu’s local and international trips are expected to gulp N873,886,689 and N6,140,709,822, respectively, while N47,488,198 and N1,314,618,239 were allocated for the same purposes for the Vice President, which amounts to N8,746,702,948 in total.

Further findings also revealed that this is lesser than the N9,478,319,215 allocations for the Vice President’s and President’s trips in the 2024 budget. (The Guardian)