The approval followed lengthy plenary sittings in both chambers of the legislature, culminating in the passage of the Appropriation Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bills for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, which were transmitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last Friday.

In the Senate, the revised budget frameworks were adopted after lawmakers considered a consolidated report of the Committee on Appropriations, presented by its chairman, Senator Solomon Adeola of Ogun West. Lawmakers explained that the exercise was aimed at realigning the country’s budget structure with prevailing fiscal realities, addressing implementation shortfalls and restoring discipline to the budgeting process.

Presenting the report, Adeola said the objective was to repeal earlier budget provisions and replace them with figures that better reflect revenue limitations, debt sustainability concerns and emerging national priorities. He disclosed that the original ₦35.005 trillion 2024 Appropriation Act was repealed and re-enacted with a total expenditure of ₦43.561 trillion, covering statutory transfers, debt servicing, recurrent spending and capital expenditure.

Adeola noted that an additional ₦8.5 trillion was injected into the capital component of the 2024 budget to support special interventions in response to security, humanitarian and economic challenges. He added that the revised framework was designed to balance urgent national needs with fiscal responsibility, ensuring that debt-related spending does not undermine prudence or legislative oversight.

On the 2025 fiscal year, he revealed that the earlier ₦54.99 trillion budget was repealed and replaced with a revised total expenditure of ₦48.316 trillion. He explained that part of the capital allocation was deferred to the 2026 fiscal year due to funding constraints highlighted during the presidential budget presentation, with ₦6.674 trillion rolled over in anticipation of improved revenue inflows.

Adeola cautioned that the continued practice of running multiple budget cycles at the same time weakens fiscal discipline, transparency and accountability, stressing that extending one budget while another is already operational should be avoided.

Based on these findings, the committee recommended approval of the repeal and re-enactment of the 2024 Appropriation Act to authorise total expenditure of ₦43.5 trillion from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, alongside the revised ₦48.3 trillion framework for the 2025 fiscal year, to run until March 31, 2026. The Senate subsequently passed the bills after extensive debate.

The House of Representatives also approved the revised ₦43.56 trillion 2024 budget and the ₦48.31 trillion 2025 budget after adopting the report of its Committee on Appropriations. The passage followed a clause-by-clause consideration of the estimates at the Committee of Supply and their approval at plenary, presided over by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas.

A breakdown of the revised 2024 budget shows allocations of ₦1.74 trillion for statutory transfers, ₦8.27 trillion for debt servicing, ₦11.26 trillion for recurrent non-debt expenditure and ₦22.27 trillion for capital expenditure and development fund contributions for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025.

For the revised 2025 budget, ₦3.64 trillion is earmarked for statutory transfers, ₦14.31 trillion for debt servicing, ₦13.58 trillion for recurrent non-debt expenditure and ₦16.76 trillion for capital expenditure through development fund contributions. Like the Senate version, the 2025 budget will run until March 31, 2026.

In his communication to the National Assembly, President Tinubu said the revisions were necessary to accommodate budgetary items previously omitted and to recalibrate capital implementation targets in line with Nigeria’s execution capacity and revenue realities. He explained that the revised framework adopts a more realistic capital implementation benchmark of 30 per cent.

The president acknowledged persistent weaknesses in the execution of the capital component of the 2024 budget, noting that these challenges significantly affected infrastructure delivery and development projects nationwide. He said extending the lifespan of the 2025 budget would give Ministries, Departments and Agencies sufficient time to access and utilise the targeted capital releases.

Tinubu added that the revised budget framework is part of broader fiscal reforms aimed at correcting structural deficiencies in Nigeria’s budgeting process, ending the practice of overlapping budgets, improving planning, strengthening accountability and delivering better value for money to Nigerians.