Before President Bola Tinubu’s administration, the federal government had maintained the January-December budget cycle for three consecutive years, however, it was disrupted when he assumed office.
With a month and a week left in 2025, the delay in the presentation of the 2026 budget proposal signals a possible extension of the disruption to the annual cycle.
In his first year, Tinubu presented the 2024 budget on 29 November 2023, and signed it on 1 January 2024 — indicating the national assembly took a month to review the N27.5 trillion budget, which was later increased to N28.7 trillion.
For the 2025 budget, the national assembly took two months to review the proposal, as Tinubu presented it on 18 December, 2024, and signed it on 28 February — bringing an end to the January-December budget cycle.
This is despite Atiku Bagudu, the minister of budget and economic planning, saying on 14 November 2024, that the federal government is working to ensure a January-December budget cycle.
The failure to keep to the tradition has raised concerns among stakeholders, considering the 2024 budget implementation deadline was postponed twice — from the original deadline of 31 December 2024, to 30 June 2025, then to 31 December 2025.
Also, on 29 June 2024, it was reported that the federal government was operating the 2023 budget, the 2023 supplementary budget, and the 2024 budget concurrently.
Impact of Late Budget Presentation
As the running of multiple budgets concurrently becomes a tradition, stakeholders like BudgIT, a civic tech non-profit organisation, said in a post on Thursday, that it is ‘unimaginable’ for a nation of over 200 million people like Nigeria to head into 2026 without a proposed federal budget in sight.
BudgIT also asked about how many budgets were running, pointing out that Nigerians lacked access to such information.
‘The 2023 & 2023 supplementary capital budgets were extended into 2024’, the organisation said.
‘The 2024 capital budget was extended first to June 2025… then again to December 2025’.
BudgIT acknowledged the publication of the 2024 budget implementation report but highlighted that the 2025 reports are yet to be released.
‘The 2025 budget itself arrived almost 3 months late — and was riddled with amendments, corrections and contradictions’, the organisation said.
‘What began as a N47.9 trillion plan suddenly ballooned to N54.99 trillion… with little visible impact on Nigerians.
‘Even worse: the capital component of the 2025 Appropriation Act — passed 9 months ago — has still not been implemented’.
Additionally, the firm said the 2026–2029 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), which should guide both federal and state budgets, ‘has not been prepared or presented’.
Speaking to TheCable, Ayokunle Olubunmi, head of financial institutions ratings at Agusto & Co., said the delay in presenting the 2026 budget is concerning, especially with the month nearly over.
‘By now, even the budget should have actually been passed’, he said.
Olubunmi said typically the country’s budget runs from January to December, but he forecasted that this cycle will be distorted, as the budget has not ‘even been presented to FEC’.
‘The implication is that we won’t have a new budget by January, which would threaten the January to December budget cycle’, he said.
‘There was a time last year or this year, that we had about three budgets running concurrently. So it seems as if we might get back into that particular pattern in which the budget will still be overlapping’.
Speaking further, Olubunmi said difficulties in maintaining the January-to-December budget cycle could impact planning ‘because a lot of businesses need to align with the budget’.
‘The federal government is the largest spender in the economy. So it’s the way they want to spend that will determine the revenue to different sectors and a lot of businesses will use that to plan their activities’, he said.
Olubunmi added that it could also disrupt the progress of ongoing projects.
Analyst Says Circumstances Determine Timeframe To Review Budget
Speaking on the impact of the national assembly reviewing budgets in two months — a timeframe when the budget was passed in 2024 and 2025 — Olubunmi said the timeframe was not definite.
‘To be fair to them, the budget is a very huge document with different sectors, so they need to go through it, have all their committees they need to meet and what have you’, he said.
‘I don’t think the problem is with the timeframe for passing the budget; the problem is even for the executive to submit it on time, for there to be proper scrutiny’.
Also speaking on the required timeframe for the national assembly to review a budget report, Olubunmi said it depended on different circumstances.
‘At times when you are reviewing a document, I always say that it is the quality of what is submitted to you that will determine your review’, he said.
‘If the quality of what is submitted is actually great, there are no errors, there are no duplication, they can easily actually even go ahead’.
Olubunmi said the required timeframe for the national assembly to review a budget report, depends on different circumstances.
‘But at times, assuming that we have cases in which they submitted budget and some of them are duplicated, some of the numbers don’t jive, some of them the assumption doesn’t tally, in that case you might take it back and review this one’.
Olubunmi added it was challenging to give a timeframe, because ‘it’s based on the quality of what is actually submitted’.
The budget minister did not respond to TheCable’s enquiry on the delay.
