President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will, on Friday, present the 2026 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly.
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The presentation, scheduled for 2:00 pm, was conveyed in a notice issued yesterday by the Office of the Clerk to the National Assembly.
According to the notice, all accredited persons are required to be at their duty posts by 11:00 am on the day of the presentation, as access to the National Assembly Complex will be restricted thereafter for security reasons.
The notice, signed by the Secretary, Human Resources and Staff Development, Essien Eyo Essien, on behalf of the Clerk to the National Assembly, urged all concerned to ensure strict compliance with the arrangements ahead of the President’s budget presentation.
The 2026 budget is projected at N54.4 trillion, according to the approved 2026–2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
Meanwhile, Tinubu has asked the National Assembly to repeal and re-enact the 2024 Appropriation Act.
The request was conveyed in separate letters to the Senate and the House of Representatives on Wednesday and read during plenary by the presiding officers.
The bill is titled Appropriation (Repeal and Re-enactment Bill 2) 2024, involving a total proposed expenditure of N43.56 trillion.
In a letter dated December 16, 2025, the President said the bill seeks authorisation for the issuance of a total sum of N43.56 trillion from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation for the year ending December 31, 2025.
A breakdown of the proposed expenditure shows N1.74 trillion for statutory transfers, N8.27 trillion for debt service, N11.27 trillion for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, and N22.28 trillion for capital expenditure and development fund contributions.
The President said the proposed legislation is aimed at ending the practice of running multiple budgets concurrently, while ensuring reasonable, indeed unprecedentedly high, capital performance rates on the 2024 and 2025 capital budgets.
He explained that the bill also provides a transparent and constitutionally grounded framework for consolidating and appropriating critical and time-sensitive expenditures undertaken in response to emergency situations, national security concerns, and other urgent needs.
Tinubu added that the bill strengthens fiscal discipline and accountability by mandating that funds be released strictly for purposes approved by the National Assembly, restricting virement without prior legislative approval, and setting conditions for corrigenda in cases of genuine implementation errors.
The bill, which has passed first and second reading in the House of Representatives, has been referred to the Committee on Appropriations for further legislative action.
Analysts have raised concerns that extending budgets and rolling capital expenditures into later years can lead to duplication of allocations, confusion in project prioritisation, and potential mismanagement, all of which could further weaken economic performance and investor confidence.
Expert seeks holistic reform to end budget rollovers
Dr. Muda Yusuf, Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), has called for a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s budget process to end the long-standing cycle of rollovers, weak capital spending and chronic non-implementation that has undermined development outcomes and public trust.
He said the President’s proposal on budget realignment should be seen as a corrective step aimed at regularising years of uneven and incomplete budget execution rather than abandoning previously approved projects.
According to Yusuf, Nigeria’s budget challenges stem largely from unrealistic assumptions, particularly on revenue projections, which result in poor implementation and mounting arrears.
He argued that instead of discarding unexecuted projects, the government should consolidate outstanding commitments, clear the backlog and re-present them within a more coherent and credible fiscal framework.
“This approach offers an opportunity to reset the system and finally break the recurring cycle of capital budget rollovers that weakens development impact and erodes confidence in public finance,” he said.
Yusuf stressed that meaningful progress would require holistic reform rather than ad hoc adjustments.
Key elements, he noted, include aligning expenditure strictly with credible revenue expectations, avoiding overly optimistic forecasts, and prioritising spending that supports productivity and development.
He also identified rising debt service obligations as a major constraint on budget performance, warning that heavy first-line deductions for debt repayment continue to shrink fiscal space and crowd out capital expenditure.
Sustainable debt management, he said, is essential to restore flexibility and protect development spending.
While noting that the Appropriation Act carries full legal weight, Yusuf cautioned that compliance is only effective when budgets are built on realistic foundations.
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