Nigeria\u2019s annual budget cycle is losing its meaning as budgets are repeatedly extended into the following year, making it increasingly difficult to establish what the government was expected to deliver within a particular budget year and how its performance should be assessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pattern is now evident across three consecutive budget cycles, with the 2023 budget extended into 2024, the 2024 budget into 2025, and the capital component of the 2025 budget now extended into 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest extension keeps the capital component of the 2025 Appropriation Act in operation until 31 December 2026, alongside the 2026 budget. The Senate and House of Representatives approved the extension on 29 September 2026, when they returned from their 10-week annual recess, before adjourning plenary until 13 October 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Running the capital component of one year\u2019s budget alongside the following year\u2019s budget complicates legislative oversight and public accountability, particularly when it becomes difficult to determine which budget year should be used to assess government spending and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At what point does a budget extension stop being an extension and become part of how Nigeria\u2019s budget system operates?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When One Budget Becomes the Next<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A national budget authorises government spending and sets out what it intends to collect and spend within a defined financial period, giving the legislature and the public a basis for monitoring implementation and assessing performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the capital component of the 2025 budget continuing into 2026 alongside the 2026 budget, expenditure in the same financial year is now governed by two appropriations. Clear records should show which appropriation funds each project and what happened to earlier allocations where projects appear in successive budgets. For example, a project completed in 2026 may be counted as a 2026 achievement even though it was funded under the 2025 budget, while an uncompleted project may receive a new allocation without a clear account of the original one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result is a weaker link between budget commitments and the spending and outcomes recorded against them, making it harder to assess what the government delivered in each budget year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Budget Financing and the MTEF<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The repeated extension of capital budgets also needs to be viewed against the government\u2019s overall fiscal position. Fuel subsidies have been removed, new tax measures introduced, borrowing has continued, and some government agencies have reported record revenues. Yet capital allocations continue to be carried into subsequent financial years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If government is unable to finance and implement capital expenditure within the period for which it was approved, where is the constraint? Are available revenues insufficient to finance the budget, or are funds being committed elsewhere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 (FRA) provides a framework for answering that question by linking annual budgets to a three-year Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under Section 11<\/strong> of the FRA<\/strong>, the Federal Government is required to prepare the MTEF for the following three financial years<\/strong> not later than four months before the start of the next financial year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The process begins earlier, with the Ministry of Finance expected to present the MTEF to the Federal Executive Council before the end of June<\/strong>, while government corporations and agencies are required under Section 21 to submit their three-year revenue and expenditure estimates by the end of August<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Section 18 requires the annual budget to be derived from and remain consistent with the approved MTEF<\/strong>. Annual spending should therefore form part of a three-year expenditure plan rather than being determined independently each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Projects can be deliberately planned and funded across several financial years. An annual appropriation carried forward because the approved spending was not implemented within the financial year is different from a project that was programmed from the outset as a multi-year commitment. Repeated extensions make it necessary to examine which of these is taking place and whether actual spending is following the plan set out in the MTEF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Did the National Assembly Review?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The repeated extensions also bring the National Assembly\u2019s oversight role into focus. Appropriation gives the legislature control over what the executive is authorised to spend and the purposes for which it may be spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When an appropriation is extended, the legislature has to decide whether the reasons for non-implementation justify allowing the spending to continue into another financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before approving the latest extension, the National Assembly should have been able to establish how much of the 2025 capital budget had been implemented, which projects had been completed or remained outstanding, how much had been released and spent, what remained unspent, and why approved spending had not been completed within the original timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without that information, an extension can simply carry forward spending that was not implemented as planned without addressing the reasons for the delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With extensions now occurring across successive budget cycles, the concern is whether the legislature is adequately examining why approved spending remains unimplemented before granting further extensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Does a Budget Actually End?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There may be legitimate reasons for extending a budget, particularly where procurement delays, project timelines, or unforeseen circumstances make it impractical to complete every approved expenditure within a single financial year. Repeated extensions, however, require greater clarity about how annual appropriations are being implemented and carried forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The overlap between the capital component of the 2025 budget and the 2026 budget makes it harder to distinguish expenditure belonging to one financial year from another. It also complicates the assessment of implementation against the MTEF and the National Assembly\u2019s oversight of spending that was not completed within the period originally approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A budget should leave a clear record of what government committed to spend, what it actually spent, what remained unimplemented, and why. When appropriations routinely cross into the following year, the connection between the approved budget and actual expenditure becomes blurred, making it more difficult to measure government performance and for the National Assembly to exercise effective oversight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nigeria\u2019s annual budget cycle is losing its meaning as budgets are repeatedly extended into the following year, making it increasingly difficult to establish what the government was expected to deliver within a particular budget year and how its performance should be assessed. The pattern is now evident across three consecutive budget cycles, with the 2023 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4283,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279\/revisions\/4283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}