President Bola Tinubu has asked the House of Representatives to repeal and re-enact the 2024 and 2025 budgets and extend the 2025 budget to 31 March 2026.
This is contained in a letter by the president and read by Speaker Rt Honourable Abbas Tajudeen on Friday.
Nairametrics reports that this comes ahead of the president’s presentation of the 2026 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly today.
What the president said
In the letter, the President explained that the bills seek to repeal the 2024 Appropriation Act of N35.06 trillion and re-enact it with a revised total expenditure of N43.56 trillion.
He said the revised 2024 budget authorises N1.74 trillion for statutory transfers, N8.27 trillion for debt service, N11.27 trillion for recurrent spending, and N22.28 trillion for capital projects, up to 31 December 2025.
Tinubu proposed cutting the 2025 budget from N54.99 trillion to N48.32 trillion, extending it to 31 March 2026.
“This is part of a broader fiscal reform measure aimed at eliminating the overlap of multiple concurrently running budgets, thereby strengthening planning, execution, and accountability across government expenditure cycles,” Tinubu said.
Why the President Is Making the Request
The President said the proposed bills would accommodate expenditure items not previously recognised and introduce a revised capital implementation target of 30 per cent.
He said extending the 2025 budget would ensure full release of the 30% capital allocation to MDAs, improving project execution and budget performance.
Tinubu said the move is part of a fiscal reform to end overlapping budgets that weaken planning, execution, and accountability.
What you should know
In June, the Senate approved a second extension of the implementation period for the 2024 capital component of the national budget, from June 30, 2025, to December 31, 2025.
This move aims to allow for the full execution of capital projects funded under the 2024 Appropriation Act.
The January-to-December budget implementation cycle, a hallmark of fiscal discipline, was established during the tenure of the 9th National Assembly.
On December 18, 2024, the National Assembly approved extending the 2024 budget’s lifespan to June 2025.
Last week, the federal government directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to carry over 70% of their approved 2025 capital allocations to 2026.
In a circular issued by the Budget Ministry and circulated to senior government officials, MDAs were instructed that their 2026 budget proposals must largely be composed of funds already allocated in 2025. New capital projects are not permitted under this directive.
