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N150bn Presidential Jet Returns from South Africa After Refurbishment
Nigeria’s newly acquired N150bn presidential jet has been flown back to the country after months in South Africa, where it underwent a full livery change to the nation’s green and white colours.
The Airbus A330-200 was spotted at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Wednesday, the Punch reports.
Photographs posted on Thursday by aviation-tracking account @Abuja_Aviation on Instagram showed the twin-engine, wide-body aircraft, tail number 5N-FGA, parked at the Presidential Wing of the airport.
The aircraft is painted almost entirely white, with green-white-green stripes running the full length of its fuselage and an emblem of the Nigerian Air Force crest on the forward fuselage near the cockpit windows on both sides.
Both engine intakes were capped with bright red circular covers, signalling that the aircraft, at the time the photograph was taken, was not being prepared for immediate flight.
A self-contained airstair was also positioned at the forward left doorway, but no passengers were visible on it.
However, ground personnel were spotted at the front of the wing and slightly behind the nose gear.
A presidency official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press, confirmed the arrival, saying, “Yes, they have returned the aircraft after the painting and minor touch-ups to the inside.”
He added that the jet would resume presidential duties “after routine acceptance checks” by the Nigerian Air Force’s Presidential Air Fleet.
The official did not say when next the aircraft would fly the President. However, footage shared by the State House on Friday afternoon showed President Tinubu boarding the aircraft for his official visit to Kano State.
He is also expected in Ogun State in the coming days to pay condolence visits to the family of the late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, who died on Sunday, July 13, 2025, at the age of 91. The revered monarch reigned for 65 years.
It was earlier reported that the jet had been ferried to South Africa for “refitting and repainting,” barely nine months after President Bola Tinubu’s administration took delivery of the 15-year-old wide-body from a European leasing firm in August 2024.
At the time, it had been out of operation for about three months.
Since February 2025, the President has been using a San Marino – registered BBJ (REG: T7-NAS) for his foreign and local trips.
Reliable sources confirmed that the primary aircraft had been flown to South Africa to change its livery to reflect the office of the President.
“The last I heard is that they took it abroad, I think to South Africa, to change the body design. You know it doesn’t have the green-white-green,” one source said, asking to remain anonymous.
“It’s not only the body paint. I learned they are doing some refurbishment on it,” a second official stated.
Another official said the aircraft’s interim commercial colours had to be stripped and replaced with Nigeria’s official VIP livery before it could operate as call-sign Eagle One.
Registered in Nigeria as 5N-FGA and operated by the Air Force’s 001 Squadron, the twin-aisle Airbus is fitted with a master bedroom, shower, conference room and secure communications suite.
The Airbus A330 was purchased for $100m (N150bn) through the service-wide votes, the Federal Government disclosed.
The move drew harsh criticism from some sections of the National Assembly, the opposition, and the citizenry.
The 15-year-old plane, an ACJ330-200, VP-CAC (MSN 1053), is “spacious and furnished with state-of-the-art avionics, customised interior and communications system,” Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, stated
He added that, “It will save Nigeria huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly.”
Aviation analysts say its 13-hour range allows non-stop flights from Abuja to New York or Beijing, eliminating costly fuel stops that plagued the older Boeing 737 Business Jet used by the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Officials contacted for this story did not disclose the cost of the repaint, with one saying only that it was “part of the original acquisition contract,” the Punch adds.
However, a full exterior repaint of a wide-body like the Airbus A330 typically costs between $190,000 and $320,000, according to recent rate cards from Lufthansa Technik, International Aerospace Coatings, and South Africa’s SAA Technical.
They quote $8–$10 per square foot for strip-and-paint work on an A330’s roughly 2,323 square metres of skin, a price range aircraft manufacturers use when budgeting end-of-line livery changes.
An Airbus A330 would need about 250–300 litres of high-solids polyurethane topcoat.
A 2023 survey by Simple Flying and Aviation Week put the “standard two-colour wide-body respray” at $175,000–$200,000, rising only when multi-colour wraps are required.
However, the Nigerian colours (an all-white fuselage, a narrow green cheat line, and a pair of national crests on both sides of the tail and the Air Force crest near the cockpit) may require low-graphic work and ultimately put the costs at the lower end of the range.
The new Airbus A330 is one of several aircraft currently on the Presidential Air Fleet, arguably one of Africa’s largest, with around 11 aircraft of various makes and models.
Until early July, it included the 20-year-old B737-700 Business Jet acquired in 2005 for $43m during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure.
Details obtained from US-based aircraft listing site The Controller say the aircraft is now on sale in Switzerland.
The aircraft was listed by JetHQ, a U.S.–based business-aviation brokerage and consulting firm that buys, sells, and leases business jets for clients worldwide.
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JetHQ said the plane had undergone inspections and maintenance in preparation for sale.
At the time of filing this report, however, the company had not responded to inquiries by our correspondent about the asking price. An email sent to the company’s VP of Marketing, RJ Miller, is still awaiting a reply.
The Presidency said the BBJ had become a money guzzler as it aged.
Other aircraft on the presidential fixed-wing fleet include a 13-year-old Gulfstream Aerospace G550, Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7Xs, a Hawker 4000, and a Challenger 605.
Three of the seven fixed-wings are reportedly unserviceable.
The rotor-wing fleet includes two Agusta 139s and two Agusta 101s, all operated by the Nigerian Air Force but supervised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
Both the Buhari and Tinubu administrations had earlier pledged to streamline the PAF for cost-efficiency.
The Presidency has clarified that President Bola Tinubu is not on trial in the United States, describing the ongoing legal proceedings involving records linked to him as a civil dispute over access to government documents.
The clarification was made by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, amid renewed attention to the case before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
According to the Presidency, the matter arose from requests submitted under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for records relating to Tinubu.
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“For clarity, the matter is a civil records-disclosure dispute under the United States Freedom of Information Act. It is not a criminal case against President Tinubu, nor has the court found him guilty of any criminal wrongdoing,” the Presidency stated.
The government explained that Aaron Greenspan submitted FOIA requests to several US government agencies in 2022, seeking records relating to the President.
After some agencies withheld certain records or declined to confirm or deny their existence, Greenspan commenced Civil Action No. 23-1816 before the US District Court for the District of Columbia in 2023.
The court subsequently permitted President Tinubu to participate in the proceedings as an intervenor.
The Presidency said some of the agencies invoked the “Glomar defence”, a legal position that allows US government agencies, under certain circumstances, to neither confirm nor deny the existence of particular investigative records.
It added that the court subsequently granted summary judgment in favour of the CIA, Executive Office for United States Attorneys, Department of State, Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service, effectively removing them from the proceedings.
However, aspects of the case involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration remained subject to further consideration.
The Presidency further disclosed that the FBI and DEA had produced 399 pages of records in compliance with court orders, although portions of the documents were redacted under exemptions provided by US law.
According to the government, the plaintiff challenged the agencies’ decision to redact parts of the documents and sought their release without the redactions.
The FBI and DEA, through the US Department of Justice, opposed the request, citing legal protections covering certain categories of information.
The Presidency said some of the records relate to grand jury proceedings, which are protected from public disclosure under US law.
It also cited protections covering information connected to certain court orders authorising pen registers or trap-and-trace devices, as well as documents protected by attorney-client and attorney-work-product privileges.
The Presidency’s clarification comes amid heightened political debate ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, with opposition figures continuing to scrutinise the President’s past and administration.
The government, however, maintained that the US proceedings should not be misrepresented as a criminal trial against Tinubu, stressing that the case concerns the disclosure and withholding of government records.
Renewed tensions in the Middle East have seen crude prices push towards $100 per barrel riding on the back of US sanctions and a blockade of Iranian oil exports, which have escalated the Asian country’s economic woes.
Consequently, the Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed to $97 per barrel on Thursday before declining to $95.50, as reported at Oilprice.com.
On its part, Reuters reported that the surge in oil prices came as Washington intensified its campaign to cut off Iran’s access to international financing and prevent the country from circumventing sanctions.
Three senior Iranian sources reportedly told Reuters that the latest measures were proving increasingly difficult for Tehran to withstand, with the country facing dwindling channels for securing foreign currency and importing essential goods.
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The pressure has also severely affected Iran’s oil exports.
Iranian crude loadings have fallen to about 260,000 barrels per day this month, from around 1.7 million bpd a year earlier, according to commodity analytics firm Kpler.
The development has raised fresh concerns over the impact of the sanctions on global oil markets, particularly as the conflict has disrupted energy supplies and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
While some energy continues to flow through the strategic waterway, the US blockade of Iranian oil exports has effectively cut off Tehran’s main source of revenue, Reuters reported.
Iran’s economic problems have been compounded by a sharp collapse in its currency and accelerating inflation. The rial has fallen from about one million rials to the dollar a year ago to more than 2.2 million rials currently.
Official figures put Iran’s 12-month average inflation at 69.9 percent, while prices of food, beverages and tobacco have risen at nearly twice that rate.
The squeeze has also affected Iran’s ability to maintain its sanctions-evasion networks, with front companies, unregistered tankers and smuggling operations becoming increasingly expensive.
The country’s trade has fallen by between 25 and 35 percent, with imports hit harder than exports, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has also disrupted a major channel for Iranian commerce, announcing on 19 August that all commercial exchange and financial dealings with Tehran had been halted until further notice.
These have plunged Iran’s domestic fuel situation into some sort of turbulence.
One senior Iranian source told Reuters that the country has only about two months’ supply of petrol, which it needs to import despite its domestic oil production because of limited refining capacity.
The deteriorating economic conditions are also placing severe pressure on Iranian households. Average monthly salaries are estimated at about $125, compared with basic household spending requirements of roughly $450, according to official data.
The economic squeeze comes as fighting between Iran and the United States has intensified, with attacks and retaliatory strikes raising fears of further disruption to oil supplies and shipping.
Leading economists, financial experts and industry stakeholders have described the Dangote Group’s investments as major drivers of industrialisation and economic transformation across Nigeria and Africa.
The experts cited the Group’s impact on job creation, import substitution, foreign exchange conservation and economic competitiveness.
They voiced their thoughts at the Lagos Economic Summit themed “The Real Deal: Africa’s Greatest Investment Opportunity,” where they urged governments to implement policies that strengthen local industries and accelerate economic diversification.
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Samaila Zubairu, commended the Dangote Group’s sustained investments across Africa, describing them as critical to unlocking the continent’s economic potential.
He noted that while recent economic reforms have improved foreign exchange stability, strengthened reserves and eased inflationary pressures, the focus must now shift to growth in industry, productivity and employment.
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Also speaking, Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Muda Yusuf, said industrialisation remains the most effective path to sustainable economic development.
He called for better alignment of trade and industrial policies, stressing that local manufacturers require strategic support to compete effectively and drive broader economic benefits.
Founder and CEO of Nairametrics, Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, said Africa’s growing population presents a significant industrial opportunity, noting that investments such as the Dangote Refinery are helping to retain capital within the continent while strengthening local production capacity.
In his keynote address, Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismarck Rewane, said Nigeria is gradually transitioning from a consumption-led economy to one driven by investment and production.
He added that sustained investments in productive sectors will continue to stimulate growth, create jobs and improve living standards.
Participants at the summit also advocated stronger credit infrastructure, improved national identification systems and increased investment in skills development to enhance the productivity and global competitiveness of Africa’s growing youth population.
Photo Caption: From Left – Chief Economist, Dangote Industries Limited, Dr. Hassan Mahmud; Lady Maiden Alex-Ibru; Chairman of Occasion/Special Guest of Honour, Samaila Zubairu; Key Note Speaker Session 1, Bismarck Rewane; during the Real Deal: Africa’s Greatest Investment Opportunity, Sponsored by Dangote Industry Limited in Lagos on Thursday 3, September 2026.
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