As a part of its responsibility to ensure the security of its people, Nigeria's federal government spent an estimated N231.27bn ($286 million) in its procurement of firearms and ammunition.
This amount was spread across a four-year period, according to a report by the Nigerian newspaper, PUNCH.
Security agencies in the West African country argued that the budget was not sufficient enough to address the high rates of crime that exist across all states.
Rationale for the budget
General Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defence Staff, corroborated the aforementioned assessment at the House of Representatives alongside other security chiefs but rationalized that a lack of a weapons industry in the country leads to the importation of weapons which when bought in dollars, stresses the entire military budget.
"We don't produce what we need in Nigeria and if you do not produce what you need, that means you are at the beck and call of the people that produce these items. All the items we procured, were bought with hard currency, none in naira. Most times when funds are released, by the time you turn these funds into dollars, they can only get us very little," he said.
He gave the House a glimpse of how the budget is allocated stating "For example, during the last regime, about $1bn was set aside for defense procurements. Out of that amount, over $600m was for the procurement of the aircraft. So the whole money had gone.
For any ammunition we buy, we buy it in dollars and we spend in millions. So, many times, when people see that funds are being released to the armed forces, they think it is so much but by the time you convert them to dollars, you do not get so much.
One precision missile for our drone costs $5,000; so imagine how many we would be able to use and how many we can procure. Those are the challenges."
However, the PUNCH's assessment shows that this year alone, N47.02 billion was spent on the purchase of arms and ammunition, while the newly approved supplemental budget of N184,25 billion brought the total to N231,27 billion.
Additionally, the PUNCH's report revealed that a sum of N115bn was spent on the purchase of arms and ammunition in the first quarter of 2023, which is higher compared with the last two years.
"Arms worth N29.236bn were imported in 2020. In 2021, N72.5bn in arms and ammunition were imported, while N4.9bn worth of weapons were imported in 2022," the report states.
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