As 2025 Appropriation hangs, Nigerians await 2026 budget

The delay in the presentation of the 2026 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is raising concerns among Nigerians, Daily Trust can report.

Also, there are fears that Nigeria faces the risk of running four budgets concurrently including the 2024 Appropriation Act, 2024 Supplementary Budget and 2025 budget by the time the 2026 budget is presented.

It would be recalled that Nigeria returned to the January to December budget cycle during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

But this is no longer the case as Nigeria now runs three different budgets concurrently; the development which stakeholders describe as unprecedented in Nigeria’s recent budgetary history.

Recently, the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Tanumu Yakubu confirmed that three budgets are running concurrently.

In June, the National Assembly extended the capital vote component of the 2024 budget till December 31.

While providing clarifications on the multiple budgets, Tanimu explained that it was a deliberate response to real-world economic and administrative realities.

“It reflects the real-world overlap between budget law, execution delays, and system-wide reform efforts,” Yakubu said.

He said the concurrent implementation of budgets is not outside the bounds of national laws and conforms to global best practices.

He outlined that the Finance Act, Appropriation Act clauses, and Central Bank of Nigeria’s circulars provide the legal basis for this coexistence by allowing rollover of capital releases across fiscal years; cash-flow bridging to support early implementation of new budgets; and parallel accounting for complex or externally-financed infrastructure and social programmes.

He said: “This is not fiscal dysfunction—it is the transitional cost of trying to modernise a complex, high-volume national budget system.”

He described the current situation as “institutional flexibility in managing fiscal transitions”, noting that the critical issue should not be the number of budgets being operated but the coordination and transparency in their execution.

“What’s in operation now is a reforming system, not a chaotic one. The 2025 budget is being implemented in earnest, while residuals from the 2024 and Supplementary Budgets are lawfully closed out and disbursed. This is part of building a more agile and accountable public finance framework.

“Nigeria’s overlapping budget operations are legal under current fiscal statutes, technically necessary due to multi-year projects and delayed implementation, and comparable to practices in other countries navigating budget reform and absorptive constraints,” Yakubu said.

He explained that the 2024 Appropriation Act, which was signed by the President in January 2024, was valid until December 31, 2024, but it remains the primary legal framework for federal spending in 2024 and thus continued to be active, especially for capital projects, statutory obligations, and contracts tied to 2024 project codes.

2025 budget still in limbo?

At the moment, the implementation of the 2025 budget is being delayed as allocation for capital projects to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, has not commenced.

According to the 2025 Appropriation Act assented to by the President, there is a capital expenditure component of N23.96 trillion.

The 2024 full-year budget performance report revealed that the federal government has disbursed only 32.28% of its 2024 capital budget as of June 2025.

The report said, “The sum of N13.77 trillion was appropriated for the capital expenditure. This translates to prorate quarterly expenditure outlay of N3.44 trillion in 2024. Actual capital expenditure of N6.17 trillion was spent in the 2024 fiscal year.

“The release of funds to MDAs for capital expenditure as at the fourth quarter of 2024 was done in tranches based on availability of resources and government priorities. Data from the OAGF on 2024 capital performance for MDAs as at 31st March, 2025 showed that a total of N4.00 trillion was released to and cash-backed for MDAs’ 2024 capital projects and programmes.

“The sum of N948.86 billion was released as First Tranche, N840.52 billion was released as Second Tranche, N1.08 trillion was released as Third Tranche, N284.08 billion was released as Fourth Tranche, and N123.91 billion was released as Additional Fourth Tranche. A total of N722.82 billion was released as AIEs Service Wide.”

So at the time of filing this report, there is no record of any capital release for the 2025 expenditure delaying several projects planned by the federal government.

While the 2024 budget is still being implemented, sources within the government confirmed that the delayed implementation of the 2025 budget is what is responsible for the delay in the presentation of the 2026 budget.

Some MDAs that spoke with our correspondent also confirmed that funds have not been released for the 2025 budget even as the 2024 allocation is yet to be fully implemented.

“This development is affecting our smooth running and operation. We have many projects lined up in the 2025 budget which we are hoping we would have cash-backing in order to start implementing some of these projects,” a highly placed source said.

Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu in a foreword on the fourth quarter budget implementation report attributed the slow implementation of the budget to revenue shortfall.

He wrote: “Revenue shortfalls persisted, especially in oil receipts, while non-oil revenues exceeded expectations. Total FG revenue stood at N20.98 trillion, and expenditure reached N34.49 trillion, resulting in a fiscal deficit of N13.51 trillion, financed wholly by multilateral/bilateral project-tied loan, domestic/foreign borrowing and budget support.”

According to the Minister, despite fiscal pressures, the government prioritized capital investment, releasing N5.81 trillion, with an 81.91% utilization rate by MDAs.

“The debt-to-GDP ratio however reached 61.22%, highlighting the ongoing imperative to strengthen current domestic revenue mobilization efforts and ensure fiscal sustainability. This report is the result of collaboration among financial and statistical agencies, with particular recognition of the Budget Monitoring and Evaluation Department. It provides policymakers, stakeholders, and the public with reliable data and analysis to inform decision-making and advance Nigeria’s development goals.”

Also, the Director-General of the Budget Office in a preface to the report said, “Despite global and domestic pressures, the 2024 Budget was implemented with an appreciable level of fiscal discipline. Key priorities going forward include enhanced fiscal discipline, a broadened revenue base, rationalized spending, and strategic capital prioritization.

“As we look ahead, sustaining the gains of 2024 requires enhanced coordination across MDAs, effective implementation of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, and a relentless focus on accountability, efficiency, and inclusive development.”

While there has not been any official comment from the National Assembly as of press time, the delay in the implementation of the 2026 budget is raising concerns among lawmakers.

Besides, it was learnt that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which is a prelude to the actual budget presentation has not been presented. However, it was approved yesterday by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The MTEF outlines the government’s revenue projections, expenditure plans, and fiscal targets, and according to the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007, the MTEF must be prepared by the executive, presented to the National Assembly for approval at least four months before the fiscal year begins, and must be approved before the annual budget can be developed.

Rep. Wole Oke in a chat with our correspondent simply said, “MTEF is a byproduct of FRA of 2007. It focuses more on planning and sound/prudent financial Management.

“While I agree that it’s long overdue for submission to the Parliament, Mr President and his team must have a cogent reason for this delay. The most important thing is to comply with our constitutional provisions,” he said.

No meaningful development will take place – Expert

A member of Daily Trust’s Board of Economists, Mr. Aliyu Ahmed in a chat with our correspondent said the current development is unprecedented in Nigeria’s recent fiscal history.

He also stated that the slow implementation of the budget with three different budgets running concurrently is “problematic.”

He said, “Based on the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, Section 11(1a) stipulates that six months before the commencement of the new financial year, the Federal Government after consultation with the states should submit MTEF to the National Assembly for consideration.

“This is to be followed by the submission of budget estimates to NASS around September/ October or November latest (of the current year) by convention, to give NASS sufficient time to deliberate on the budget and ensure timely passage and commencement of implementation by January 1, of the new budget cycle in this case (2026).

“It is noteworthy that we cannot discuss the FY 26 Budget in isolation without looking at the implementation of FY 2025 Budget in particular and the FY 24 Budget with FY 24 Supplementary Budget which implementation were extended till December 2025.

“To be honest, for keen observers of budgets in the last three decades, this form of budget implementation as depicted in FY 24 and 2025 implementation is without precedence.”

“The Coordinating Minister for the Economy /Minister of Finance was reported to have signed the Capital Warrant of Full Year 2025 in November, 2025. By the time the paperwork is finalized, actual releases may happen late November/ December 2025. With the best intentions, there is no time for any meaningful impact in 2025!

“This compounds the problems for the government, keen observers, scholars and other stakeholders who want to assess the impact of budget implementation in both FY 24 and 25. Furthermore, the slow implementation of the capital component of FY 25 budget in particular, is problematic.

“Even though the real GDP in Q2 FY 25 witnessed a sustained positive trajectory  year-on-year of 4.23  percent compared to 3.13 percent in Q1 FY 25, full implementation of the capital budget for FY 25 would have achieved  higher growth that could propel citizens out of extreme poverty over time.

“The argument of poor revenue by some analysts, in my view, is not tenable, as the Federal Government also benefited from improved liquidity shared during FAAC meetings. These funds if deployed to Consolidated Revenue Funds could have achieved decent capital budget implementation for Full Year 2025.

“The government needs to prioritize its spending on poverty alleviation measures and those areas approved in the budget across MDAs that will impact on the lives of citizens. Most importantly, the government needs to assess the efficiency of its fiscal spending to enable it achieve the much desired development impact and provide the citizens the dividend of democracy.”

‘Current situation a mess’

Another economist, Dr. Marcel Okeke in a chat with our correspondent described the current development as a “mess.”

“With all the failures of the Buhari administration, they succeeded in returning to the January to December budget cycle. But with this one now in December, I have not heard that the President has presented the 2026 budget to the National Assembly.

“If you go and look at it, you will see three months or four months before the end of the year that a new budget must be presented. It is an utter violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. That’s the present foundation of the act. And so, what that creates, the problem it creates is that by the time you start to roll over budgets, the budget will no longer be implemented strictly the way it was made because it’s no longer for that time that it was supposed to be implemented,” he added.

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