Nigeria’s military expenditure is projected to increase to about $2bn in 2023, according to Trading Economics.
Trading Economics provides data for 20 million economic indicators from 196 countries including actual values, consensus figures, forecasts, historical time series and news.
The organisation disclosed this in a report published on its website on Monday.
It also said military expenditure in Nigeria increased to $4.5bn in 2021 from $2.7bn in 2020.
It read, “Military expenditure in Nigeria was expected to reach $2bn by the end of 2022, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations.
“In the long-term, Nigeria’s military expenditure is projected to trend around $2bn in 2023, according to our econometric models.
“Military expenditure in Nigeria averaged $1.2bn from 1960 until 2021, reaching an all-time high of $4.5bn in 2021 and a record low of $23.4m in 1960.”
A security expert, Timothy Avele, said the current regime has spent much on security, stressing that there has been a lack of proper implementation and monitoring of the funds.
He said, “Truth be told, I think this administration spent the biggest budget in the security and defence sector. However, I score the administration 35% in proper implementation and monitoring of the huge funds budgeted and released for security and defence.
“The funding was spent but the results on the ground indicated poor usage by those concerned and sadly, no questions asked by those who were supposed to ask questions.”