⅝Aminu Maida, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), oversaw a combined expenditure of ₦4,670,296,000 (Four Billion, Six Hundred and Seventy Million, Two Hundred and Ninety-Six Thousand Naira) on foreign and local transport and travelling by the Commission for staff in the 2024 financial year, Politics Nigeria exclusively reports.
Maida was appointed to head the NCC by President Bola Tinubu in October 2023.
As head of the Commission, he oversees the regulation of Nigeria’s telecommunications industry, including telecommunications operators and consumer protection.
A breakdown of the expenditure shows that the NCC spent ₦3,597,540,000 on foreign transport and travelling, while another ₦1,072,756,000 went to local transport and travelling during the year.
The Commission had budgeted ₦2,970,730,000 for foreign transport and travelling in 2024. However, actual spending reached ₦3,597,540,000, exceeding the budget by ₦626,810,000, according to figures obtained by Politics Nigeria.
Politics Nigeria’s review of the Commission’s expenditure also identified other significant spendings.
The spending comes at a time when many Nigerians are struggling with rising food prices, transportation costs healthcare expenses, while households continue to contend with declining purchasing power. This is even as the federal government has also continued to rely on borrowing to finance budget deficits.
The NCC expenditure is part of a wider investigation by Politics Nigeria into how federal government agencies spend public funds.
According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s total public debt stood at approximately ₦144.7 trillion as of December 31, 2024, representing an increase of about ₦57.3 trillion from the ₦87.38 trillion recorded as of June 30, 2023.
The latest DMO figures show that Nigeria’s total public debt reached ₦166.79 trillion (approximately $120.93 billion) as of June 30, 2026.
Last week, President Tinubu sought the Senate approval for a fresh external borrowing plan of $7.707 billion, equivalent to approximately ₦10.79 trillion, to help finance the Federal Government’s 2026 budget deficit.
The request, conveyed in a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on November 4, 2026, replaced an earlier proposal for external borrowing of $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion. The new request was referred to the relevant Senate committees for consideration.
In our fact-finding mission, Politics Nigeria contacted Nnenna Ukoha, Head of Public Affairs at the NCC, to seek the Commission’s reaction to the expenditure.
The newspaper requested details of the foreign and domestic trips, including their purposes, the number of officials involved, the destinations visited, and the measures in place to ensure accountability in the use of public funds.
However, several efforts to reach Ukoha proved futile, as she did not respond to our enquiry.
