Between 2023 and 2025, the Federal Government allocated N74.96bn toward the procurement of arms, ammunition, and military equipment, with expenditure reaching a peak of N40.84bn in 2024.
Data from the civic tech platform GovSpend reveals that the Federal Government invested no fewer than N74.96bn in arms, ammunition, and military hardware over a three-year period ending in 2025. Analysis shows that procurement reached its zenith in 2024, accounting for N40.84bn—more than half of the total reviewed expenditure—representing a 22.6 per cent increase from the N33.30bn spent in 2023. This upward trend saw a significant correction in 2025, with recorded entries dropping sharply to N819.46m, reflecting a concentrated period of heavy acquisition for the nation’s security architecture.
The spending pattern in 2023 was characterized by major acquisitions across various military branches, with the Ministry of Defence alone recording two payments totaling N16.06bn in November for ammunition procurement. During the same year, the Nigerian Army committed N4.41bn to ammunition and N2.77bn to a surveillance attack aircraft in June, while the Nigerian Navy’s arms expenditure totaled N6bn between August and December. Beyond the primary military branches, other agencies including the Nigeria Correctional Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps also recorded hundreds of millions in spending for protective and operational equipment.
The 2024 fiscal year witnessed the most aggressive surge in defense spending, largely driven by bulk procurement activities centered in July. On a single day—July 26, 2024—the Ministry of Defence processed five separate payments totaling N33.22bn, earmarked for what were described as “critical and urgent operational equipment for the Nigerian military.” These massive transactions underscore the government’s intensified efforts to equip the armed forces during that period, focusing on high-value hardware and rapid deployment capabilities to address domestic security challenges.