• Wants 2024 Budget Of N35.06 trn Raised To N43.56trn, Seeks Approval To Implement 2025 Budget Till March 2026
• Declares Armed Non-state Actors Terrorists
With just 13 days left in the 2025 fiscal year, President Bola Tinubu has moved to scale down the nation’s 2025 budget by over N6 trillion. This is as the president formally requested the National Assembly’s approval to extend the 2025 budget implementation to March 31, 2026. In a letter dated December 18, 2025, read by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, on Friday, the president transmitted the Appropriation (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bills for 2024 and 2025.
Under the revised figures, the president said the 2024 budget of N35.06 trillion would be replaced with N43.56 trillion, while the 2025 budget of N54.99 trillion would be re-enacted at N48.32 trillion to cover statutory transfers, debt service, recurrent expenditures, and capital development contributions.
Similarly, the president, on Friday, also presented a ₦58.18 trillion 2026 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly, declaring that all armed non-state actors operating outside state authority would henceforth be classified as terrorists, as his administration moves to consolidate economic reforms and tighten Nigeria’s security architecture.
The request to repeal and re-enact the 2025 budget comes on the same day he is presenting the 2026 budget to the National Assembly. In the 2026–2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) approved by the lawmakers, the total size of the proposed budget is N54.46 trillion, out of which N34.33 trillion is expected as retained revenue.
The House approved the proposed crude oil benchmark of $64.85 per barrel for 2026, diverging from the Senate, which approved a lower $60 benchmark.
Both chambers, however, retained the same crude oil production projections of 1.84 million barrels per day (mbpd) for 2026, 1.88 mbpd for 2027 and 1.92 mbpd for 2028.
The lawmakers approved exchange rate projections of N1,512, N1,432.15 and N1,383.18 for 2026, 2027 and 2028 respectively, in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy to stabilise the naira and strengthen fiscal and monetary policy coordination.
The president’s move to scale down the 2025 budget also comes against the backdrop of a major revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year. The president said the revision of the budget timeline would ensure that the 30 per cent capital allocation target for MDAs is fully released, addressing chronic under-execution of capital budgets in previous years.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, recently disclosed that the Federal Government generated only about N10.7 trillion in 2025, far below the projected N40.8 trillion.
Edun attributed the gap largely to weak performance in the oil and gas sector, particularly Petroleum Profit Tax and Company Income Tax, as well as underperforming revenue subheads.
Although the government borrowed about N14.1 trillion, total inflows remained insufficient to fully fund the N54.9 trillion budget of restoration.
Tinubu in his letter said the bills propose repealing the existing Appropriation Acts and re-enacting revised expenditure plans that reflect current fiscal realities and execution capacity.
If the President’s request to extend and re-enact the 2025 budget is approved while the 2026 budget is also signed into law, Nigeria will effectively be operating two budget cycles simultaneously.
This would continue the very problem the president has described as a key reason for the exercise and the government would be running overlapping budgets despite the administration’s stated intention to streamline fiscal planning and improve accountability.
The issue of multiple budget implementations and continuous extension of the capital component of previous budgets by the Federal government has long been a source of concern.
The Federal government often with the support of the National Assembly, has justified such extensions as necessary for project completion. Under the current administration, the National Assembly has approved multiple overlapping budgets for President Bola Tinubu’s government. For instance, in 2024, Nigeria operated three budgets. They are the N21.8 trillion 2023 budget, the N2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary budget, and the N28.7 trillion 2024 appropriation.
Though the ninth National Assembly passed the first two during the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, President Bola Tinubu extended their capital components first to June and later to December 2024, even as the 2024 budget was already in force.
The trend continued in 2025, when the capital component of the 2024 budget, which should have ended in December 2024, was extended twice, first to June 2025 and then to December 2025.
As a result, the country is currently running two budgets simultaneously: the extended 2024 budget and the 2025 budget of about N54.2 trillion, which lawmakers raised by N7 billion from the president’s initial proposal.
But the president in his letter, said the bill is designed to end the practice of running multiple budgets concurrently, which has often complicated fiscal planning and delayed capital project implementation.
Tinubu said the current submission of the Appropriation (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bills supersedes an earlier transmission dated December 16, 2025.
According to the president, “The Bills seek to repeal the 2024 Appropriation Act of N35,055,536,770,218 and re-enact it by authorising the issuance from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation of the total sum of N43,561,041,744,507.
Tinubu described the exercise as part of broader fiscal reforms aimed at eliminating overlaps of multiple concurrently running budgets, thereby strengthening planning, execution, and accountability across government expenditure cycles.
He said the move would provide for a transparent and constitutionally grounded appropriation mechanism and a prudent public financial management framework.
Other provisions include allowing virement only with prior National Assembly approval, setting conditions for corrigenda where genuine errors hinder implementation, requiring separate recording of excess revenue with expenditure limited to an Act or approval of the National Assembly, and mandating due-process compliance with periodic reporting on releases and agency revenues or assistance.
Meanwhile in the 2026 budget estimates, themed “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity,” Tinubu, while addressing lawmakers, said Nigeria’s economy is showing clear signs of stabilisation, citing improved growth, easing inflation, stronger revenues, and renewed investor confidence.
According to the president, Nigeria’s economy grew by 3.98 per cent in Q3 2025, up from 3.86 per cent in the same period of 2024. Headline inflation, he said, declined for eight consecutive months, falling from 24.23 per cent in March 2025 to 14.45 per cent in November 2025. He also disclosed that external reserves had risen to a seven-year high of about $47 billion, providing more than ten months of import cover.
“These outcomes are not accidental. They reflect difficult but deliberate policy choices. Our task now is to consolidate these gains so that stability becomes prosperity, and prosperity becomes shared prosperity.”
The 2026 Appropriation Bill projects a total revenue of ₦34.33 trillion against an estimated total expenditure of ₦58.18 trillion, underscoring the government’s continued reliance on deficit financing to sustain growth and critical public spending.
A significant emphasis is placed on capital investment, with ₦26.08 trillion earmarked for infrastructure and other development projects aimed at boosting productivity and long-term economic resilience.
Recurrent non-debt expenditure is estimated at ₦15.25 trillion, while debt servicing will consume ₦15.52 trillion.
Consequently, the budget records a deficit of ₦23.85 trillion—equivalent to 4.28 per cent of Gross Domestic Product—highlighting both the scale of Nigeria’s development needs and the administration’s commitment to balancing fiscal sustainability with capital-led economic expansion.
The budget assumptions are based on a $64.85 per barrel oil benchmark, 1.84 million barrels per day production, and an exchange rate of ₦1,400/$.
Tinubu assured lawmakers that borrowing would remain disciplined and tied strictly to projects that deliver measurable public value. The president directed the Minister of Finance, Budget Office, Accountant-General, and heads of Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) to enforce strict budget discipline, warning that Nigeria “can no longer afford leakages, inefficiencies, or underperformance.”
He announced full digitisation of revenue mobilisation, including automated collections, real-time monitoring, and performance dashboards, with revenue targets tied directly to leadership evaluations.
Security received one of the largest allocations at ₦5.41 trillion, Education received ₦3.52 trillion, while ₦2.48 trillion was allocated to health. Tinubu highlighted the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which he said has supported over 418,000 students across 229 tertiary institutions. Infrastructure received ₦3.56 trillion, with emphasis on transport, energy, ports, agriculture, and food security.
