Tinubu reduces entourage on foreign trips to 20 officials

In a bid to cut costs, President Bola Tinubu has reduced the number of officials who will be travelling with him on international trips to 20.

The president also reduced the number of officials who can travel with the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, on international trips to five.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale announced the development while briefing State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, January 9, 2024.

Ngelale said the directive applies to the Offices of the President, Vice President, First Lady, Wife of the Vice President and all Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

He said, “President Bola Tinubu has approved that anywhere he travels within this country he will no longer accept or allow huge security delegations to be following him from Abuja, which attracts massive bills with respect to estacode and duty allowances from now on.

“He has approved a massive cost-cutting exercise that will cut across the entire Federal Government of Nigeria and the Offices of the President himself, the Vice President and the Office of the First Lady. It will be conducted in the following fashion.

“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.

“In terms of local trips, the President has approved a new limit of 25 members of staff to accompany him on domestic trips within the country.

The president also cut down the number of officials for the Office of the First Lady and that of the Wife of the Vice President for official trips within the country to 10 staff members, while that of the Vice President will be limited to 15 members.

Ngelale added that ministers's entourage will now limited to four persons for foreign trips while heads of agencies can only travel with two persons.