President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima will spend about N9 billion on both local and international travel in 2026, as a recent report projects that 141 million Nigerians will live in poverty.

A review of the 2026 budget shows that Mr Tinubu will spend N7,014,596,511 on local and international travels in the year under review.

While the president’s foreign trips will cost N6,140,709,822, his local trips will cost N873,886,689.

On the other hand, Mr Shettima will spend N1,732,106,437 on local and international travel, with foreign trips costing N1,314,618,239 and local trips costing N417,488,198.

The total budget for the duo’s travel amounted to N8,746,702,948.

Meanwhile, a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on Nigeria’s economic outlook for 2026 projected that Nigeria’s poverty rate will reach 62 per cent, affecting 141 million of the over 200 million population.

“Poverty is projected to rise to 62 per cent (141 million people) by 2026, reflecting weak real income growth and lingering inflation effects,” the PwC report stated.

The PwC report states that over 33 million Nigerians will face food insecurity due to prevailing economic hardship and widespread insecurity in the country’s food-producing states.

Despite lingering economic hardship in the country, Mr Tinubu, in his New Year message, predicted “2026 to be the beginning of a more robust phase of economic growth.”

“As we enter 2026, our focus is on consolidating these gains and continuing to build a resilient, sustainable, inclusive, and growth-oriented economy.

“We closed 2025 on a strong note. Despite the policies to fight inflation, Nigeria recorded a robust GDP growth each quarter, with annualised growth expected to exceed 4 per cent for the year. We maintained trade surpluses and achieved greater exchange rate stability. Inflation declined steadily and reached below 15 per cent, in line with our target,” Mr Tinubu said.

The president added that his administration was determined to further reduce inflation in 2026.