Reps approve Tinubu’s request to extend 2025 capital budget to March 2026

The approval came alongside the passage of revised 2024 and 2025 budgets, as lawmakers admitted that funding constraints and weak fiscal discipline continue to undermine effective budget execution.

The House of Representatives has approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to extend the implementation of the capital component of the 2025 Appropriation Act to 31 March 2026.

The approval was granted on Tuesday during plenary after lawmakers adopted the report of the House Committee on Appropriations.

This followed a clause-by-clause consideration of the revised 2024 and 2025 budget bills in the Committee of Supply.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that last Friday, President Tinubu transmitted the Appropriation (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bills, 2024 and 2025, seeking lawmakers approval to repeal the existing budgets and replace them with revised expenditure frameworks aligned with current fiscal realities.

In his communication to the House, the president said the revised budgets reflect a capital implementation target of 30 per cent, which he described as more consistent with prevailing fiscal conditions and the government’s execution capacity.

He added that the extension of the 2025 budget implementation to 31 March 2026 was aimed at ensuring the full release and utilisation of the targeted capital allocations by ministries, departments and agencies.

Passage of revised 2024 budget

As part of the exercise, the House passed the revised 2024 Appropriation Act, raising the total size of the budget from N35.05 trillion to N43.56 trillion.

The approved spending framework provides ₦1.74 trillion for statutory transfers, ₦8.27 trillion for debt service, ₦11.27 trillion for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, and ₦22.28 trillion for capital expenditure and development fund contributions.

The Act authorises the issuance of the approved sum from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation to finance government operations for the fiscal year.

Revised 2025 budget

At the same sitting, lawmakers also passed the revised 2025 budget with an aggregate expenditure of ₦48.32 trillion for the period ending 31 March 2026.

The revised 2025 framework allocates ₦3.64 trillion to statutory transfers, ₦14.31 trillion to debt service, ₦13.58 trillion to recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, and ₦16.76 trillion to capital expenditure and development fund contributions.

The approval repeals the earlier 2025 Appropriation Act of ₦54.99 trillion and replaces it with a reduced spending plan.

Committee report

Presenting the committee’s report, the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abubakar Bichi, said the panel met with members of the president’s economic team to understand the rationale behind the proposed revisions.

Those present at the meeting included the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun; the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; and the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu.

Mr Bichi told lawmakers that the repeal and re-enactment of the 2025 budget was designed to balance responsiveness to urgent fiscal pressures with the need to maintain legislative oversight and fiscal discipline.

He disclosed that about N16.76 trillion initially earmarked for capital projects could not be funded within the original 2025 timeline and was therefore rolled over to the 2026 fiscal year.

According to him, the adjustment would make the budget more realistic and effective, while reducing governance costs and positioning the government to benefit from anticipated improvements in revenue generation in the next fiscal year.

“The initiative is expected to make the budget effective, reducing the expenditure of the governance, giving the anticipated increase in revenue-generating properties in the next fiscal year,” he said.

Concerns over rolling budget cycles

Mr Bichi, however, acknowledged that the practice of overlapping budget cycles such as extending the implementation of the 2024 budget deep into 2025 while a new budget is already in force weakens budget clarity and undermines fiscal discipline.

Despite these concerns, he said the committee agreed that the current fiscal constraints made the extension unavoidable.

Following the presentation, the House approved the bills clause by clause and passed them for third reading.

The House subsequently adjourned plenary until 27 January for the Christmas and New Year recess.