By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Correspondent
BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION timelines are set to shift to March 31, 2026, under a formal request transmitted by President Bola Tinubu to the House of Representatives seeking legislative approval to extend the lifespan of the 2025 Appropriation Act and curb overlapping fiscal cycles.
The request was conveyed in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, in which the President asked lawmakers to approve measures that would allow the full release of capital allocations to ministries, departments, and agencies and enable the consolidation of capital components across fiscal years.
In the letter dated December 18 and read at plenary by the Speaker, the President transmitted the Appropriation Repeal and Re Enactment Bills for 2024 and 2025 for legislative consideration.
He stated that the proposed Bills seek to repeal the existing Appropriation Acts for both years and re-enact revised expenditure frameworks reflecting current fiscal realities and execution capacities.
The President informed the House that the 2024 Appropriation Act of N35,055,536,770,218 is proposed for repeal and re-enactment through authorisation of the issuance from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation of a total sum of N43,561,041,744,507.
The proposed amount comprises N1,742,786,788,150 for statutory transfers, N8,270,960,606,831 for debt service, N11,268,513,380,853 for recurrent non debt expenditure, and N22,278,780,968,673 for capital expenditure and development fund contributions for the year ending December 31, 2025, as provided in the Bill.
The correspondence also seeks to repeal the 2025 Appropriation Act of N54,990,165,355,396 and re-enact it by authorising the issuance of N48,316,242,591,785 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.
This sum comprises N3,645,761,358,925 for statutory transfers, N14,317,142,689,548 for debt service, N13,588,009,682,673 for recurrent non debt expenditure, and N16,765,328,860,640 for capital expenditure and development fund contributions for the year ending March 31, 2026, as provided in the Bill.
The President stated that the Bills are submitted to accommodate items not previously recognised while reflecting a revised capital implementation target of 30 percent.
He said the adjustment aligns with current fiscal realities and execution capacities and is intended to ensure that budget performance remains credible and transparent.
He explained that extending the 2025 budget to March 31, 2026, would allow for the full release of the targeted 30 percent capital allocation to all ministries, departments, and agencies describing the request as part of a broader fiscal reform measure aimed at eliminating the overlap of multiple concurrently running budgets.
According to the letter, the proposed legislative changes are designed to strengthen planning, execution, and accountability across government expenditure cycles while providing a transparent and constitutionally grounded appropriation mechanism and a prudent public financial management framework.
The President said the Bills also contain provisions to strengthen implementation discipline and accountability. These include requirements that appropriated funds be released and applied strictly for the purposes specified in the schedules, and that virement may only be effected with prior approval of the National Assembly.
The Bills further set out conditions for corrigenda where genuine errors may hinder implementation, require the separate recording of excess revenue, and limit its expenditure to an Act or approval of the National Assembly.
The correspondence also mandates periodic reporting on fund releases and agency revenues or assistance, alongside due process compliance in the utilisation of public funds.
The President informed the House that the letter supersedes an earlier submission dated December 16, 2025, noting that the new correspondence was transmitted ahead of the planned consideration of the earlier letter on the two budgets.
He appealed to lawmakers to consider the passage of the Bills in their usual expeditious manner and extended assurances of his highest consideration to the Speaker.
Earlier, the President disclosed that only about 17 percent of the 2025 capital budget, amounting to ₦3.1 trillion, had been released by the third quarter.
He made the disclosure while presenting the 2026 budget to the National Assembly, explaining that the low implementation of the 2025 capital budget resulted from a focus on completing priority 2024 projects during the transition period.
He also stated that the current submission to the National Assembly seeks to improve budget coherence and execution across fiscal years by addressing challenges associated with overlapping budgets and strengthening public financial management within the established constitutional and legislative appropriation framework.
