ActionAid: Redirect N9.36B Travel Budget to Save Nigeria’s Healthcare

For Nigeria’s health sector, every naira siphoned into luxury travel or unwarranted flyovers is a missed opportunity to fund primary health centers, recruit nurses, or stock essential medicines. With the 2026 budget proposing N9.36 billion just for the Presidency’s travel and refreshments, ActionAid’s call is a stark reminder that health is not just a social good but a fiscal priority that demands immediate reallocation.

ActionAid Nigeria has issued a sharp call for fiscal reorientation, urging President Bola Tinubu and state governors to slash wasteful spending on prestige projects and luxuries and redirect those funds toward education and healthcare. The demand, made on August 3, 2026, came as a direct response to President Tinubu’s earlier directive to governors to abandon unnecessary flyover construction in low-traffic areas—a rare presidential acknowledgment of misplaced infrastructure priorities. In a statement by Country Director Dr. Andrew Mamedu, ActionAid argued that Nigeria’s pattern of public expenditure consistently favors political visibility over tangible citizen welfare, and that with millions of Nigerians facing severe economic hardship, every naira must deliver measurable social returns.

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ActionAid Nigeria has issued a sharp call for fiscal reorientation, urging President Bola Tinubu and state governors to slash wasteful spending on prestige projects and luxuries and redirect those funds toward education and healthcare.

The organization specifically flagged the 2026 budget proposal, which allocates N9.36 billion for the President and Vice President Kashim Shettima for local and foreign travel, food, and refreshments. That figure, ActionAid noted, does not even capture the full cost of official trips, as expenses for accompanying officials and operational support are often buried elsewhere. The group urged governments at all levels to also cut luxury acquisitions, oversized delegations, excessive foreign trips, and other discretionary expenditures that lack transparency.

Nigeria’s fiscal space is extremely constrained. Over 40% of the population lives in multidimensional poverty, and the country consistently ranks among the worst globally in human capital indicators. Public health expenditure remains far below the 15% of the budget pledged under the Abuja Declaration, leading to crumbling facilities, frequent strikes by health workers, and some of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. Education suffers a similar fate, with millions of out-of-school children and dilapidated schools. In this context, ActionAid’s intervention is not merely a budgetary critique but a demand for a fundamental shift in how Nigeria defines development.