Budget delay, fiscal chaos

The government’s inability to submit the 2026 budget on schedule is exposing long-standing weaknesses in Nigeria’s fiscal process. Poor budget execution, rushed debates, and the simultaneous operation of multiple budget cycles threaten to exacerbate an already fragile fiscal environment that requires a clear strategy and discipline. Already, we are in the first week of December, leaving just about three weeks to the end of the year. Yet, President Bola Tinubu has not submitted the 2026 Budget Estimates to the National Assembly for the needed rigorous scrutiny. The timing and procedures for presenting the budget are clearly outlined in the existing laws. The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 provides a clear and specific timeline for when the Federal Government’s budget (the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and the annual budget) should be prepared and presented. It states in Section 11(1)(b) that “The Federal Government shall cause to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly on or before the end of September in each financial year the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework for the next three financial years.” Therefore, going by the provisions of this Act, the presentation of the budget estimates is already three months late. For a country currently reeling from a discordant budget implementation, this delay is not just another missed deadline; it portends an extension of the incoherence with which the nation’s fiscal activities have been handled to the detriment of effectiveness and efficiency in resource management and budgetary coordination. It is sad that this country does not have a well-defined budget cycle. From the pronouncements of government officials, Nigeria is currently implementing at least two separate budget cycles: the 2024 budget and the 2025 budget. A government that cannot have identifiable budget implementation cycles cannot claim to be a good manager of resources. The consequences of the discordant implementation can be devastating, with disruptions to public finance, which is at the heart of the government’s machinery. For instance, there have been reports of the government being unable to release funds to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, which in turn has hampered the operations of the affected units. As of September this year, the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, told the nation that only about 80 per cent of the 2024 budget had been implemented. He explained that the National Assembly had extended the execution of that budget to the end of 2025, an indication of the sorry state of Nigeria’s fiscal space. It is the same for the 2025 budget. While the Budget Office announced that implementation of the capital budget was scheduled to commence in September, there are indications that, as of November, disbursement of funds for capital projects for this year has yet to fully take off. This nebulous arrangement creates selective implementation of projects and mars an objective assessment of whole budgets or components thereof. The nation has thus found itself in a situation where the government’s ineptitude has become an obstacle to the performance of the economy. When a government feels comfortable missing the implementation of budgetary provisions, that raises questions over the relevance of such proposals in the first place. Each provision in a budget is essential for the achievement of the goals of national financial planning. We have witnessed protests by contractors over failure of the government to pay for contracts executed running over two years. How then can the performance of the budget each year be appraised or compared with another period, when the release of funds for projects cannot be compared? Budgets, being the government’s plans of action for a given period, must be based on credible estimates derived from today’s facts. This delay will impact the economy. Budgets are governments’ signals to the business communities of where they intend to go and how they plan to achieve their goals. As such, budgets are critical tools for the business community to plan its way for the period. This delay in budget preparation will ultimately cloud business expectations and outlook for 2026, making corporate planning difficult. This will raise uncertainty and impede risk management. Daily Trust hereby reminds the government that a budget that the country needs right now will not be passed by the National Assembly “on your mandate,” the destructive slogan that is slowly replacing the constitutional checks and balances in a democratic setting. Such a document must be subjected to the highest possible scrutiny for coherence, relevance, appropriateness and timeliness of each provision made. The legislature requires enough time to achieve this, which underscores the need for early submission of the budget proposals. We, therefore, call on the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, the Budget Office of the Federation, principally, and others to rise to their responsibilities. Nigeria’s fiscal activities are in shambles and need urgent attention.

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