Head of Civil Service office spends ₦5.4m on microwave, kettle

A review of the Govspend public payment portal has exposed staggering government expenditures in 2025, including ₦52.1 million spent on tea by the Debt Management Office and ₦5.4 million utilized for a single microwave and electric kettle by the Office of the Head of Civil Service

A series of startling financial disclosures from the Govspend public payment portal has revealed a pattern of highly inflated expenditures across several Nigerian federal agencies in 2025. According to a review by SaharaReporters, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) spent a total of ₦5.4 million on the “procurement of microwave oven and electric kettle” in a single transaction paid to Rosebud Ventures Global Resources Limited on June 30, 2025. This revelation follows an even more suspicious entry from the Pension Transitional Arrangement Department (PTAD), which reportedly processed a payment of ₦6.8 million on May 26, 2025, for the purchase of just “20ltrs of groundnut oil”—a quantity that typically retails for approximately ₦52,000 at major outlets like Next Cash and Carry

The Debt Management Office (DMO), the very agency tasked with managing Nigeria’s soaring national debt, has also come under intense scrutiny for spending ₦52.1 million on tea for its staff throughout 2025. Detailed records show a series of bi-monthly payments to various contractors, including ₦8.6 million to Diamond Seasons Nigeria Limited and multiple ₦8.8 million disbursements to firms such as Whiteluck Engineering Limited and Sani Sadi Nigeria Limited. These payments were systematically processed across the year, with the final transactions for November and December refreshments being settled on December 31, 2025. It remains unclear how the agency justified such a substantial budgetary allocation for tea while the country grapples with a historic fiscal deficit and a widening income gap for its citizens.

These findings are part of a broader trend of controversial spending within the Nigerian security and civil service sectors. In a related development, the Nigeria Police Force, under the leadership of Inspector General Kayode Egbetokun, was found to have spent over ₦239.4 million in 2025 on a variety of food items. The procurement list included bulk purchases of “cartons of Geisha, biscuits, Ovaltine, milk, Milo, and canned baked beans.” The Govspend portal, which is operated by the socio-accountability platform BudgIT, continues to serve as a critical tool for identifying these fiscal anomalies, prompting renewed calls from civil society for an independent audit of federal procurement processes to curb systemic waste and potential embezzlement.

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