Nigerians have spent roughly $65 billion in the last 10 years on travel-related allowances, data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) has revealed.
In the last 5 years, travel allowances – which can also be broken down into business and personal travel, topped $35.5 billion between 2015 and 2019. Travel allowances include Personal and Business Travel, while many Nigerians spend more on education-related travel compared to business-related travel.
Travel allowances are a major component of Nigeria’s dollar utilization and can be found in the breakdown of Nigeria’s balance of payment report.
Tens of thousands of Nigerians travel overseas annually to get quality education or for medical tourism, piling pressure on dollar demand locally. The country averaged about $3.3 billion per quarter in travel allowances in 2019. In the first half of 2019 alone, data from the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS) reveals that over 1 million passengers travelled out of Nigeria (2.25 million passengers in the whole of 2018).
Analysts have opined that Nigeria’s insatiable need for dollar travel allowances is a symptom of the deterioration of public services, such as quality academic institutions, health care facilities, and notable tourist destinations. This is reflected in the breakdown of dollar demand emanating from travel allowances.
Critics however point to the fact that the airline business is not profitable especially on international routes where Nigeria lacks a competitive edge.
