BudgIT pick holes in 2025 budget, seeks details of TETFUND, NJC allocations

BudgIT, a leading civic-tech organisation promoting transparency and accountability, said it has observed certain legacy issues with the 2025 Federal Government proposed budget.

It called on the National Assembly to proactively address the irregularities, exercise its “Powers of the Purse” responsibly, allow robust public participation in the budget review process, and ensure that the approved budget reflects the needs and preferences of Nigerians through job creation, poverty reduction, and inclusive broad-based economic growth.

According to BudgiT’s Communications Associate, Nancy Odimegwu, a review of the performance of the Federal Government budget over recent years revealed that the Federal Government often falls way off the mark in its macroeconomic assumptions, which pose serious fiscal risks leading to severe budget financing challenges, additional unforeseen government obligations, and a significant increase in public debt.

According to her, the body has observed that the 2025 proposed budget breakdown submitted to the National Assembly for review and approval and published on the Budget Office website omits the breakdown of some MDAs, commissions, and councils, such as the National Judicial Council (NJC) ( 341.63 billion), and TETFUND ( 940.5 billion).

She revealed that the budgets of over 60 government-owned enterprises (GOEs), including the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) among others were conspicuously absent from the 2025 Proposed Budget.

Odimegwu revealed that a combined 2.49 trillion has been allocated to five regional development commissions (Niger Delta: 776.53 billion; South West: 498.40 billion; North East: 290.99 billion; North West: 585.93 billion; and South East: 341.27 billion) under the umbrella of personnel costs.

“For context, the Ministry of Interior, responsible for overseeing the Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Correctional Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Fire Service, and their governing board, has a significantly lower recurrent non-debt expenditure allocation of N648.84 billion,” she said.

“This amount covers personnel and overhead costs for the entire ministry and its agencies.

“Lumping development commission budgets under personnel costs raises concerns about transparency and accountability. It hinders proper scrutiny of how these funds are utilised and whether they effectively achieve their intended development objectives.

“More worrisome is the fact that the 2025 budget notably omits funding for the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, a capital-intensive infrastructure project. This omission implies that if funding for this project materialises, it will likely necessitate reallocating funds from other critical projects, potentially hindering their implementation and impacting the budget’s credibility.

“It is worth noting that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent pronouncement regarding the retirement package of military generals, which includes the provision of a bulletproof SUV, fully paid foreign medical treatment, $20,000 as estacode for medical trips, and payments for domestic help, contradicts his previous commitments to reduce the cost of governance and welfare packages to top-ranked public officials and civil servants.

“Such provisions not only inflate the budget and widen the fiscal deficit but may also demoralise lower-ranking military personnel, who lack adequate health insurance and retirement benefits despite their higher exposure to combat risks.”

She appealed to the 360 Members of the Federal House of Representatives and 109 Distinguished Senators of the Nigerian Senate to prioritise national interest over personal or parochial considerations and ensure that the approved budget stimulates economic activities and macroeconomic stability allocates resources to foster economic growth and development, equitably distributes resources to reduce poverty and inequality, and caters to the most vulnerable Nigerians.