President Tinubu has slashed the travel expenditure of all government officials on domestic and international trips by 60 percent.
Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the directive was issued as a cost-cutting measure on official travels. It will also affect the offices of the President, Vice President, First Lady and ministers.
Asked if the new policy will come in form of an executive order, Ajuri simply replied that it is “not a request” but a “directive”.
Henceforth, for foreign trips, the president will be accompanied by 20 persons, while the Vice President will have just five persons and the First Lady will also have five persons, respectively.
For local trips, the president will be accompanied by 25 persons, the Vice President 15 persons while the First lady will have 10 persons.
Ngelale said; “Tinubu has directed that all state entourages be drastically reduced. The office of the president and staff will be affected. VP, appointees are affected. By this directive, there will be a slashing of expenditure on official travel by 60 per cent.”
“For heads of agency, that will be limited to two members of staff allowed to travel on an official trip. Furthermore, the numbers that the President has now approved for official travel with him that will apply to his principal staff are as follows: on international trips the president has directed that no more than 20 individuals be allowed to travel with him.
“That number will be cut down to five in the case of the First Lady. Additionally, the number in the entourage on official international trips for the Vice President will be cut to five, the number that will be placed as a limit on the wife of the Vice President is also five.
He added; “It is pertinent to note that there is a difference between the number of members of staff allowed to travel with the presiding officials to international trips and those that are allowed for domestic. You will find that the numbers on international trips are less than those allowed on domestic trips. This is because international trips are far more expensive across the board and the President is determined to bring total sanity and prudence to the management of the Commonwealth of our people.“
